How Art Can Develop Your Brain

11:05

August 24, 2015

Can looking at modern art help you become more creative? Art historian Joanthan Fineberg thinks so. (Pixabay)

Jonathan Fineberg is author of "Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain." (Marianne Malone)

Can looking at modern art help you become more creative? Art historian Jonathan Fineberg thinks so.

He says that when we look at works like Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Surrounded Islands," in which 11 islands in Biscayne Bay were surrounded by floating pink fabric, "what they do is they open up your consciousness so that everything around you looks like you never saw it before."

Fineberg discusses his new book, "Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain," with Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.

Artwork Discussed In This Segment

Jean Dubuffet, “Fluence,” 1984. (Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy of Pace Gallery. Copyright © 2013 Jean Dubuffet / Artists Rights Society (ars), New York / adagp, Paris.)

Robert Motherwell, “At Five in the Afternoon,” 1948-49. (Estate of Helen Frankenthaler. Licensed by VAGA, New York)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, “Surrounded Islands,” 1980-1983. (Aerial photo by Jonathan Fineberg)

Alexander Calder, "Dog," 1926-31, wood, clothespin and wire. (Copyright © Calder Foundation, New York/Art Resource, NY)

Joan Miró, “Spanish Dancer” (danseuse espagnole), 1928, feather, cork and hatpin on wood panel with Ripolin. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne–Centre de création industrielle, Paris. (Private collection. Artists Rights)

Guest

Jonathan Fineberg, author of "Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain."

This segment aired on August 24, 2015.