Art and the emancipation of imagination

HAVE you ever visited an art gallery or exhibition and come away scratching your head, wondering what the artist was on when they made the piece or painted the canvas.

- ASHLEY GREEN-THOMPSON

I remember many years ago we gave a departing work colleague a sculpture as a gift. It was abstract and I had no idea what it was, but my colleague's eyes filled with tears at what he said was the beauty of it.

My home has a few beautiful paint-ings by our talented local artist Lester C Stone. I know he has a wide range of styles, but I like the ones with people and situations that I can identify and connect with. Abstract work - not so much.

How do you interpret a good piece of art? This question for many years shaped and tainted my experience of art. I would feel insufficient because I didn't get it. I wasn't possessed of enough sophistication to understand what the artist was saying, not enough intellectual bandwidth to appreci-ate talent and beauty. But I think I get it now. This enlightenment was prompted by a long overdue visit to the Market Theatre, that histori-cal landmark that has been a fond part of my experiences of Joburg. We watched Mike van Graan's play 'The Good White', and like all his work it got me thinking about a lot of stuff.