Looking at art helps you feel better

Art is no longer just for aesthetes and connoisseurs. An international group of specialists from the universities of Vienna, Dublin, Berlin, Cambridge and Nijmegen combined data from almost 40 scientific publications and proved that looking at works of art is good for the psyche. Not to create, not to paint yourself, but precisely – to observe.

Until recently, the talk about the benefits of art was mainly about the creative process. The fact that a person draws or sculpts something himself has long been recognized as beneficial to the state of mind. But what happens when we simply look at a painting or sculpture? The answer to that question was scattered until a team of researchers collected data from more than 6,800 people and found a pattern.

As it turns out, regular interaction with visual art promotes what’s known as eudaimonic well-being – a sense of meaning, personal growth and fulfillment in life. It is this underlying form of inner fulfillment that is enhanced when one is immersed in the contemplation of a painting or sculpture.

Art, as it turns out, can sustain us in a variety of places – from the exhibition hall to the online platform, from the hospital room to our own apartment. Participants in the studied programs viewed works alone and with a guide, discussed what they saw, wrote notes, noted their emotions, and even performed creative tasks based on what they saw. Such additional activities greatly enhanced the effect.

In addition to the general improvement in condition, specific internal processes through which art exerts its influence have been identified. Emotions, attention, memory, desire to understand something new – all these are activated when a person encounters a work. And if he or she is not alone, a sense of belonging and social connection is also activated. People become calmer, feel more confident, and cope more easily with anxiety.

An unexpected discovery was that even in hospitals or stressful situations, where it seems that nothing can distract, a picture on the wall or a video of masterpieces really help to recover. They become a kind of “quiet support” in difficult moments.

This is why it is important to the authors of the review that the benefits of art do not remain in theory. In their opinion, paintings should become part of the educational environment, medical institutions and urban space. They suggest the use of specially developed methodological guidelines (RAARR), which will help to conduct more accurate and useful research in the future.

It seems that it is time to rethink attitudes towards painting and museums. Art is not only about beauty, but also about health. And if its influence can be so powerful without pills, maybe we should just look at paintings and sculptures more often.