Relationships in Art

"My mother's last word to me clanks inside me like an iron bell that someone beats at dinnertime: love, love, love, love, love...

We're all going to die, Johnny. Hit the iron bell like it's dinnertime."

~Cheryl Strayed (2012)

All of these pieces have been chosen because we believe that they highlight an important aspect or positive benefit of relationships.  In which ways do the artworks speak of relationships and well-being to you?  In which ways do the artworks complement or complicate ideas developed in the preceding pages of this exhibit?

As you engage with the images, you might reflect on ways that they affect you.  Small, statistically significant correlations have been detected between simply going to an art museum and several measures of health such as low scores on tests of anxiety and depression (Cuypers et al., 2012). Speculating on the roles of art in well-being, Ryff (2015) suggested that art deepens social ties (this exhibit's theme) and provides an avenue for finding self-acceptance and sense of purpose, themes explored in two other 2020 exhibits.

Works Cited

Cuypers, K., Krokstad, S., Lingaas Holmen, T., Skjei Knudtsen, M., Olov Bygren, L., & Holmen, J. (2012) Patterns of receptive and creative cultural activities and their association with perceived health, anxiety, depression and satisfaction with life among adults: the HUNT study, Norway. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 66: 698-703. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2010.113571

Ryff, C.D. (2015) The role of the humanities in improving the human condition. Museumsformidlere i Danmark 32 (Marts): 21-25. https://museumsformidlere.dk/mid-magasin/

Strayed, C. (2012) Tiny Beautiful Things. New York: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc.

Relationships in Art