Lance Esplund: The Art of Looking, How to Read Modern and Contemporary Art Sponsored by Barrett Bookstore and DCA

Part of the Darien Community Association’s Art Lecture Series: Art is an evolving language. Like any language, it takes time and effort to learn — to be able to read and to appreciate what, exactly, an artwork is saying. Each artist learns the language from other artists; and then, in turn, through the expression of his or her own unique voice, adds to and extends that language by making new art. Art, then, is an ongoing story of growth, change, reinvention, and recycling. Although, over tens of thousands of years, art has taken on an almost infinite range of subjects, materials, and forms, the elements, and language of art remain basically unchanged. Contemporary artists today use the same elements and vocabulary (form, tension, rhythm, line, movement, space, color, metaphor) as ancient artists. Gaining some fluency in the universal language of art — the aim of this lecture —grants viewers access not only to one artwork but to the whole world of art.

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