My favourite works of art from around the world (Day 11 - being grateful for ART)

Gratitude

Dec 11

This article is part of my December 2020 Gratitude series that help me end this year on a more positive and inspiring note.

As I mentioned in my previous article about my journey to architecture school, the love for art came first. It was mainly thanks to my high-school teacher Sylvia Pabst. Which I can proudly call a friend today. Her craziness into art showed me that it is absolutely okay to obsess about little details, get lost in someone's works or to cry uncontrollably when exposed to masterpieces.

I must admit, my fellow classmates must have hated me. Most of the people joined the History of Art classes because it was believed to be one of the easiest subjects to graduate from. I joined because I wanted to learn EVERYTHING. Sylvia gave me books, extra homework and we could dork about the most insane details about artist’s lives. I remember doing a presentation on Picasso's Guernica, for which I made animations that showed parts of the artwork. I could describe every single detail with fun facts. I even knew about how the museum cleaned the display. I would hate myself too. But thanks to Sylvia, I always felt encouraged about going a little deeper than was necessary for the curriculum. And because she was teaching us through stories about artists, their life and their place in history, I still remember most of it today.

The morning I had my school-leaving exams from History of Art, was the most confident I ever remember being. When I was picking out my theme, it was the best feeling in the world. I knew that anything would make me happy. It was 8 years ago, and I still remember that I chose Renaissance Sculpture and English Romanticism. We had a wonderful conversation about art for 20 minutes.

This blog could easily be called a love letter to Sylvia. I just hope she understands how grateful I am for her and my love for art that grew from the seed she planted in me. The seed that everywhere I go, takes my first steps to galleries, museums or local murals. Here are some random picks of inspiring streetart, paintings, sculptures or exhibitions from places around the world. Unfortunately, most of the venues don't allow photos, so I could not include a lot of my favourite artworks.

For those that are thinking about getting into art, I strongly recommend the book The Story of Art by Gombrich.

After going through my photos, I realized that the artworks I photographed were mainly modern art. It definitely does not reflect my taste. I spent hours studying the works of Michelangelo and Da Vinci in Italy, Rembrandt and Rubens in the Netherlands or Turner in London. I wonder why I don't have any pictures of that. I think It might be because I was always thinking about what might be interesting for Instagram rather than my personal archives… ahh well… we learn as we go, don't we?