var article_index = {"love":[{"id":137,"category_id":3,"name":"It\u2019s only a bit of fun","description":"We hardly know who this naked man is \u2013 he is just a stocky back disappearing behind a thin curtain, his cropped or balding head bent down, a white towel, perhaps, in his left hand. Something sexual is going to happen but we don\u2019t know what. Something far beyond the bounds of conventional decorum, something he needs.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSex used to be thought of as dangerous, something religious authorities told us to be very careful about and something we understood lay near a precipice.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe official story is now more cheerful and innocent. Sex, like tennis, can be fun and healthy. Francis Bacon\u2019s painting reminds us otherwise. Sex is exciting partly because it is close to danger. It can overwhelm us; it can approach violence and sadism; it can upturn everything else we cared about. This is good to know and even, with proper respect, to celebrate.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Francis Bacon","painting_name":"Study from the human body, 1949","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290176Fd101899_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-only-a-bit-of-fun","order":4,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290176Fd101899_srgb.JPG"},{"id":162,"category_id":3,"name":"I can\u2019t be sexy","description":"Being thought sexy by others and feeling sexy oneself are amongst the most coveted and most enjoyable of all experiences. These feelings, however, can be elusive, especially for thoughtful, serious people. It can feel as if they will never come one\u2019s way; that they are only for other people.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAlthough this bustier is hanging on the wall of an art gallery it is actually designed to be worn. And that means it can also be put aside. It proposes an identity to be tried on, without having to commit the whole of who you are.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe work doesn\u2019t say anything about the rest of what may be going on in a person\u2019s life: they might be holding down a highly responsible job, caring for a family, going to church, worrying about their debts or studying for a degree in archaeology. All of which are compatible with sometimes wanting (or needing) to see oneself as a sex-goddess.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small><br \/>\n","artist_name":"Issey Miyake, Tokyo","painting_name":"Bustier 1980\u201381 autumn\u2013winter","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1395175526Fb101870_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-cant-be-sexy","order":29,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1395175526Fb101870_srgb.JPG"},{"id":172,"category_id":3,"name":"Impatience","description":"Why is it so moving to see a child trying to crawl, raising its head and struggling to move forward? Because it is a universal struggle. Everyone has been through their version of this. It is the longing for movement, for control, for participation in the excitement of the world, for adventure, but we can\u2019t quite make it happen yet. The child wavers between the thrill of being able to move, revelling in something so simple as being able to support its weight on its arms, and the frustration of not being able to run and leap and dance. We too are so often on the cusp: tantalised by what we could do but not yet able to do it.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Olmec, Las Bocas, Central Mexico","painting_name":"Crawling figure, Formative 900\u2013600 BC","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292761Jg100185_srgb.JPG","stub":"impatience","order":39,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292761Jg100185_srgb.JPG"},{"id":173,"category_id":3,"name":" It\u2019s your fault I\u2019m unhappy","description":"He has really upset her, and she\u2019s showing it by going off in a huff. What did he do wrong? He doesn\u2019t know \u2013 and that\u2019s part of the problem. Is she being hypersensitive? Or is he really selfish and unreasonable? He was just being the way he always is, and now it\u2019s a disaster. Relationships deliver terrible moments of self-doubt. Of course we hope that love will flourish and that a relationship will be satisfying, because we are basically quite decent, well-intentioned people (at least in our own eyes).<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOrchardson\u2019s work is helpful because it is not concerned with blame. It does not suggest that either he or she is at fault. Rather, what it does provide us with is a clear, sympathetic sense that it is inherently difficult to live happily with another person. This, in turn, prompts the good question: what are the qualities that I personally need to develop (beyond just being my own good self) in order to get a relationship to work well?<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"William Quiller Orchardson","painting_name":"The first cloud, 1887","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292812Fd103749_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-your-fault-im-unhappy","order":40,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292812Fd103749_srgb.JPG"},{"id":183,"category_id":3,"name":"I\u2019ll show you how great I am, you bastard","description":"She is quite a star and he\u2019s a great catch. Cleopatra has invited Antony to dinner. She has told him it\u2019s going to be the most expensive dinner ever, but so far it\u2019s nothing very spectacular and he is not impressed. Then she serves a goblet of vinegar, dissolves her largest pearl in it, and drinks it down.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIf it really happened, it\u2019s an idiotic episode. But it is only an exaggerated, and more expensive, version of something closer to home. Basically Cleopatra is trying to impress Antony \u2013 she wants to make him admit how wonderful she is. Another person might take someone to the fanciest restaurant, not because that\u2019s the place they most enjoy but because of the same need to impress. It is Anthony\u2019s fault too. He egged her on.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Giambattista Tiepolo","painting_name":"The Banquet of Cleopatra 1743\u201344","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293775Fd100921_srgb.JPG","stub":"ill-show-you-how-great-i-am-you-bastard","order":50,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293775Fd100921_srgb.JPG"},{"id":194,"category_id":3,"name":"I\u2019m not very lucky in love","description":"Society\u2019s standard images of marriage portray it as a happy union. This one, by comparison, looks distinctly sinister. He doesn\u2019t look the sort of man to whom one would divulge an insecurity, or from whom one could expect a sympathetic hearing. She, younger, more vulnerable, looks lost and distanced. The painting puts us in a pessimistic (or just realistic) frame of mind about relationships.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nBy spending time with The second marriage, we do not seek to make ourselves gloomy but, rather, more appreciative of real life. The painting says to us: \u2018Tension and difficulty are par for the course. This is how life tends to be: a couple sitting side by side, not much engaged by one another. The failure of a relationship, by the standards of romantic hope, is not an aberration\u2019. This point of view changes the meaning of a broken heart. It moves from being a cruel blow aimed unjustly at you to a common experience. This may seem obvious, but when our heart is broken we generally harbour the secret belief that we are unusually unlucky individuals, unfairly deprived of the happiness which everyone else seems to enjoy. This can be a terrible addition to our sorrows.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"David Hockney","painting_name":"The second marriage,1963","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1395175476Fd103124_srgb.JPG","stub":"im-not-very-lucky-in-love","order":61,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1395175476Fd103124_srgb.JPG"},{"id":195,"category_id":3,"name":"A short memory","description":"We see a woman in anguish and imagine what the causes might be: deep disappointment in a relationship, frustration at work, feeling overwhelmed by the demands of others, or pity for a distant tragedy. Perhaps the most powerful possibility is that she is weeping because her partner has upset her so much. Love is supposed to make us happy; we fall for people we admire intensely who seem so precious to us. And yet there is no-one we are more likely to reduce to tears than someone we are in a relationship with.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWhen is it helpful to look at this cautionary image? It says: this is what will happen if you fly off the handle, if you get enraged, if you continue to be selfish, if you don\u2019t back down. This is what your partner will feel like.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Pablo Picasso","painting_name":"Weeping woman, 1937","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1395175672Fd103435_srgb.JPG","stub":"a-short-memory","order":62,"category_name":"Love","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1395175672Fd103435_srgb.JPG"}],"work":[{"id":140,"category_id":1,"name":"Whether you succeed or fail is entirely in your own hands","description":"This picture is a corrective to our obsession with control, responsibility and self-determination. It\u2019s not that these are useless obsessions, far from it. Precisely because they are so important they run the risk of being overstated, and hence of being oppressive and false. Edward Burne- Jones invokes the idea of the wheel of fortune to remind us that we have less control over our lives than we like to imagine.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe do not get to choose our parents or where we are born, and we don\u2019t control the wider currents of our society, which may suddenly have little interest in our skills or become unsympathetic to things we hold dear. Successes that we suppose are entirely due to our own efforts might in fact have quite a bit to do with luck. Failure, conversely, might not always be entirely due to our own mistakes.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Edward Burne-Jones","painting_name":"The Wheel of Fortune, 1871\u201385","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290394Fd103379_srgb.JPG","stub":"whether-you-succeed-or-fail-is-entirely-in-your-own-hands","order":7,"category_name":"Work","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290394Fd103379_srgb.JPG"},{"id":149,"category_id":1,"name":"I hate consumerism","description":"Consumerism is regularly considered to be an evil scourge on the modern world. Yet consumerism is founded on love of fruits of the earth, delight in human ingenuity and due appreciation of the vast achievements of organised effort and trade.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis picture returns us to an instructive time when abundance was new and not to be taken for granted. People in the 1640s were still amazed that they could control the world enough to have oranges and figs. Marshes had to be drained, trees planted and journeys undertaken for these fruits to reach the table. People knew how hard it all was, how astonishing that human beings could do this. They felt the beauty of trade and understood how easily it could be disrupted by blockades or war. Every pleasure of the table was sending money around Europe \u2013 a force for peace and prosperity.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nA good response to consumerism might be to recognise what is required to provide these products justly. Our desire to acquire luxury cheaply is the real problem. If the route to your table was dignified and honourable at every stage, of course an orange would cost more. Maybe then we would appreciate its zest all the keener.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Jan Davidsz. de Heem","painting_name":"Still life with fruit, c.1640\u201350","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291131Fd100279_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-hate-consumerism","order":16,"category_name":"Work","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291131Fd100279_srgb.JPG"},{"id":171,"category_id":1,"name":" I love art, but I hate commerce","description":"We tend to think that art is at odds with commercial considerations; that it is somehow above and beyond the demands of the market- place. William Morris had a different idea. He lived through a period when the crafts and traditional skills he loved were being displaced by machinery. The factory was taking over and he hated that. But Morris realised that if crafts were to survive, and even flourish, they would have to compete for sales.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nMorris and Co. was set up to make products according to craft methods for sale in big department stores (they had a lot of success with their wallpaper line). Morris wasn\u2019t snobbish about trade or commerce because he took the optimistic view that good things could also be quite popular.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Morris & Co, London","painting_name":"Sussex armchair c.1865","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292710Fa001622_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-love-art-but-i-hate-commerce","order":38,"category_name":"Work","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292710Fa001622_srgb.JPG"}],"society":[{"id":138,"category_id":6,"name":"If we upset people enough, things will get better","description":"Her life is hard. She can just scrape a living by working on the land. She is cold and tired. She hasn\u2019t done anything to deserve this.  She is just as alive, just as real as those who enjoy a comfortable existence, whose work is interest- ing and are well-rewarded for what they do. The artist who painted this big picture did not expect her ever to see it. The painting was destined for a public place where those in power could see it and see her suffering \u2013 he wanted to make others see the injustice, especially those who could do something about it.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe work thus follows one of the main strategies of political art, to draw the attention of comfortable, well-placed people towards the troubles of others which they might otherwise ignore. It\u2019s a compelling idea and one that is endlessly recycled in the claim that art should shock and disturb. But how many problems of modern politics really have this character? Maybe we already know enough about what is wrong. The difficult thing is to point out solutions that can work.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Jules Bastien-Lepage","painting_name":"October (Saison d\u2019octobre), 1878","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290270Fd100404_srgb.JPG","stub":"if-we-upset-people-enough-things-will-get-better","order":5,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290270Fd100404_srgb.JPG"},{"id":164,"category_id":6,"name":"For goodness sake, it\u2019s just a cup of tea","description":"It is one of the surprises of Zen Buddhism that it has taken an act which in the West is synonymous with the most routine and unremarkable activities and imbued it with a solemnity and depth of meaning akin to the Catholic Mass. Every aspect of the Japanese tea ceremony, from the patient boiling of<br \/>\nthe water to the measuring out of green tea powder, relates to Zen\u2019s philosophical tenets of the importance of friendship and the transient nature of existence.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIt\u2019s open ended where this approach to everyday life might go. It leaves open the possibility that many actions and daily habits might, with sufficient creative imagination, become similarly elevated, important and rewarding in our lives. The point isn\u2019t so much that we should take part in tea ceremonies, rather that we should make aspects of our everyday spiritual lives more tangible by allying certain materials and sensuous rituals.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThere is a latent sympathy between big ideas about life and the little everyday things, such as certain drinks, foods, flowers and scents. These are not cut off from the big themes; they can make those themes more alive for us.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Kimura Morikazu Tea bowl (Chawan)","painting_name":"Showa period, mid 20th century \u2013 late 20th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292260Ca101842_srgb.JPG","stub":"for-goodness-sake-its-just-a-cup-of-tea","order":31,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292260Ca101842_srgb.JPG"},{"id":176,"category_id":6,"name":"It\u2019s the young who have the ideas","description":"These men are not arguing about who won the premiership in 1953, they are testing their ideas on each other. They are not simply shooting the breeze, idly speculating or taking a position \u2018for the sake of argument\u2019: they are discussing, and disagreeing about, the things they really believe, the things that most puzzle or trouble them and the conclusions they have drawn from experience. They are trying to really work out what it all means.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThey are old and perhaps get overlooked often. They don\u2019t look powerful or influential. The man facing us is passionately engaged: he longs to convince his friend (who keeps a finger in the open book, marking another page for point he\u2019ll make in a minute) of something. They are not especially interested in status or comfort. They are not trying to win at all costs; one is not trying to batter the other into submission. They are searching together, using their disagreements to refine and develop their own thoughts.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe don\u2019t usually admit how important our own ideas are to us, how much we yearn to get others to agree.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn","painting_name":"Two old men disputing, 1628","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293336Fd100736_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-the-young-who-have-the-ideas","order":43,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293336Fd100736_srgb.JPG"},{"id":177,"category_id":6,"name":"I say I admire thinking, but in fact I don\u2019t","description":"We would like to think of ourselves as thinkers. To be called thoughtful is a very nice compliment. Sadly, thinking can go wrong in so many ways: one circles around the same conundrum, shoots off in distracted directions, or simply feels a bit numb and blank.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe actual prestige of thinking is quite low in comparison with other things: action, money, fame, physical attractiveness. Auguste Rodin is trying to correct our perspective, to bring to our attention, in a memorable way, to the appeal of thinking (absorbing oneself in reflection, musing on great matters, sticking with a conundrum, working out what one really believes and why). He is not reciting facts to himself.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe are so familiar with the low estimate of thinking that we rarely notice it. We take it for granted that the world will be full of aeroplanes, restaurants, car showrooms, hotels, supermarkets and banks (to start the list) that we fail to notice temples devoted to thinking.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small><br \/>\n","artist_name":"Auguste Rodin","painting_name":"The thinker (Le Penseur) 1884","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293415Fg100922_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-say-i-admire-thinking-but-in-fact-i-dont","order":44,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293415Fg100922_srgb.JPG"},{"id":179,"category_id":6,"name":"Beauty must come in familiar guises","description":"We might easily imagine his friends kept on telling him not to paint this scene. It\u2019s got all those hideous gas towers in it and there\u2019s that nondescript bit of waste ground in front. Perhaps we tend to share the romantic prejudice which says that industrial places can\u2019t be beautiful, can\u2019t speak to our souls.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nPaul Signac wasn\u2019t trying to annoy us. He was aiming at something more important: to teach us how to appreciate and take delight in objects which are actually visually fascinating but to which prejudice closes our eyes. He  is discovering the potential of new kinds of objects to move us.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Paul Signac","painting_name":"Gasometers at Clichy, 1886","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293547Fd101820_srgb.JPG","stub":"beauty-must-come-in-familiar-guises","order":46,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293547Fd101820_srgb.JPG"},{"id":180,"category_id":6,"name":"You won\u2019t respect me unless I show how serious I am","description":"It is like something designed by a child: a playful experiment in seeing how many toy bricks you can get to balance on top of each other, with a fun bit at the top which looks like a stick man. Unexpectedly it is also elegant and harmonious. It does not repudiate childish impulses, but extends and perfects it with the skills of adult life. It is an image of healthy growth \u2013 the kind that doesn\u2019t require us to denigrate where we used to be, or lose faith with what we used to love. Time can improve without destroying.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Ettore Sottsass","painting_name":"Carlton room divider 1981","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293596Fa100331_srgb.JPG","stub":"you-wont-respect-me-unless-i-show-how-serious-i-am","order":47,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293596Fa100331_srgb.JPG"},{"id":185,"category_id":6,"name":"I could never be like her","description":"She looks a bit of a snob \u2013 very impressed by her own grandeur and probably in the habit of putting other people down. We like to think of how unlike her we are.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAnd yet, is she really always alien to us? If you are sitting on a crowded tram with some loud, annoying people, it might at times cross your mind that not everyone is of equal worth.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis picture is not an image of the ideal mode of existence. Rather, it is a corrective. Just as it is possible to be much too dismissive of other people and much too sure of one\u2019s own superiority (like the Countess of Southampton), we can also be too ready to accept everyone as equal to ourselves, thereby underselling our own merits.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe ideal is to have an accurate view of one\u2019s worth. If we accept that it\u2019s possible to have too high an opinion of oneself, we should also admit that it\u2019s possible to have too low an opinion of oneself. If this were the case, being a little bit more like Rachel de Ruvigny would genuinely represent progress.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Anthony van Dyck","painting_name":"Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of  Southampton, c.1640","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293894Fd100878_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-could-never-be-like-her","order":52,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293894Fd100878_srgb.JPG"},{"id":191,"category_id":6,"name":"God is on the side of the big battalions","description":"It was not meant to be like this. Nobody was expecting David to triumph. He was the little guy, armed only with a sling. He was facing the great hero Goliath, the huge, seasoned warrior, in full battle-gear. They thought he would make mincemeat of David. This picture doesn\u2019t show David as someone who has merely been very lucky. He looks resolute and determined. He always thought he could do it. No-one else believed in him. He is ambitious, he relished the conflict.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThere are many obstacles to success; one being the tendency to consider too many things impossible. It\u2019s not that we can do whatever we want if we are determined, rather that things that are within our grasp are too often regarded as out of reach.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Johan Zoffany","painting_name":"David with the head of Goliath, 1756","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394294314Fd102768_srgb.JPG","stub":"god-is-on-the-side-of-the-big-battalions","order":58,"category_name":"Society","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394294314Fd102768_srgb.JPG"}],"culture":[{"id":134,"category_id":2,"name":"Art can\u2019t be about my life","description":"We are still oddly flattered and touched by the thought that something we might possess \u2013 or might have seen in a friend\u2019s apartment \u2013 can have the honour of being in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The task of the gallery isn\u2019t to show us things that are simply old or rare: that is an accidental feature of something more important, which is that these objects are good and have a power to excite and help us. Ideally these things should not be rare at all. We might be able to buy them in a shop down the road.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe are confused about the merits of rarity. Because good things are in short supply, we might unreasonably conclude that being in short supply is a requirement, a sign of quality. We start to get impressed by rarity itself.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis is an unfortunate habit of the mind. Actually we should resent rarity, we should hope instead that what we admire and like is as widely and easily available as possible.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Alvar Aalto","painting_name":"Armchair 41, designed 1930","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394289883Fa100031_srgb.JPG","stub":"art-cant-be-about-my-life","order":1,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394289883Fa100031_srgb.JPG"},{"id":141,"category_id":2,"name":"I\u2019m sceptical about pretty things","description":"This is an unashamedly pretty picture. Educated people today quite often feel queasy about the idea that art can be so sweet and lovely. Isn\u2019t this a denial of all that is wrong with the world? Shouldn\u2019t art be about more weighty and worthy matters?<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOnce life has shown us its darker sides, we start to take this sort of thing more seriously. Beautiful flowers are not a way of avoiding the tougher facts; they are a consolation now that we know suffering. We need beauty to keep our spirits high and to refresh our appetite for life.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nCheerfulness, the mood beauty naturally encourages, is a good state of mind in which to confront difficult practical problems. Like confidence, cheerfulness isn\u2019t a denial of the troubles of the world \u2013 rather, it makes us more able to deal with them.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Gustave Caillebotte","painting_name":"The plain of Gennevilliers, yellow fields (La plaine de Gennevilliers, champ jaunes), 1884","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290465Fd102754_srgb.JPG","stub":"im-sceptical-about-pretty-things","order":8,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290465Fd102754_srgb.JPG"},{"id":145,"category_id":2,"name":"That\u2019s not art","description":"You might say this is not really a work of art at all. It\u2019s just a rock that happens to have been put on a base and exhibited in an art gallery. However, the rock invites us to reconsider what \u2018art\u2019 \u2013 a word that alludes to a heightened sensitivity to all aesthetic phenomena \u2013 really is.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWhen you look at clouds across the horizon, or the way the light falls across your child\u2019s neck, or the texture of the dough in a loaf of bread and you see charm and interest and beauty therein, this is art. It is not necessarily art with someone\u2019s name attached, but art in its primordial, essential form, the stuff from which the \u2018works of art\u2019 in museums have been made. The people who isolated the Scholar\u2019s rock and put it on an elegant base were trying to teach us a far deeper lesson than to appreciate objects in museums. They were trying to tell us that you must appreciate the world around you \u2013 as that is the true work of art.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Chinese Scholar\u2019s rock","painting_name":"17th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290813Cg100227_srgb.JPG","stub":"thats-not-art","order":12,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290813Cg100227_srgb.JPG"},{"id":159,"category_id":2,"name":"It\u2019s all a bit pretentious","description":"Apart from offering shelter, a home ideally reminds us who we want to be and encourages us to be the best versions of ourselves. Rather than simply reflect what we happen to be like, a home can set out to compensate for our flaws.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis highly elaborate scheme of interior decoration is connected to an important ambition. The room is exceptionally coherent  \u2013 every piece of furniture is in the same style. So this is an ideal room for someone who is a bit chaotic, who is prone to wandering off topic and gets easily distracted.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe point is not that we should copy the particular way these designers went about the task, but rather to imagine one\u2019s own ideal home design, which might look very different.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Josef Hoffmann","painting_name":"Bookcase, from the Gallia apartment smoking room, c. 1913","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291907Fa100254_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-all-a-bit-pretentious","order":26,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291907Fa100254_srgb.JPG"},{"id":161,"category_id":2,"name":"My interest is strictly scholarly","description":"Vishnu is a supreme Hindu god, the soul of the cosmos, the ruler of all. He is shown here with his consorts who are concerned with wealth or luck and the arts of speech and music.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWithin a museum, viewers are invited to see this object in terms of where it has come from \u2013 as an ancient artefact which illuminates the convictions of other people. One adopts a respectful but detached attitude of intellectual curiosity about historical belief structures and rituals. But this may mask another kind of need.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAt a personal level, this sculptural group is inviting us to contemplate and get more serious about our own outlook. What is the role of luck in life? How does that fit with the efforts of mastery and accomplishment? These are not only matters for academic research, but also questions at the heart of every life.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Indian, Vishnu and his consorts Sri Lakshmi and Sarasvati","painting_name":"Pala period 11th century \u2013 12th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292051Cg100030_srgb.JPG","stub":"my-interest-is-strictly-scholarly","order":28,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292051Cg100030_srgb.JPG"},{"id":163,"category_id":2,"name":"Only rare things deserve to be in museums","description":"It\u2019s always strange to see an object in a gallery that is not terribly different from something  that can be bought in a shop. This particular item may have refinements and a pedigree that set it apart from what\u2019s on offer in the high street, but the kinship is definitely there between them. It might cause a moment\u2019s anxiety. Isn\u2019t the point of a gallery that it\u2019s a place where you can encounter things you cannot find (let alone buy) anywhere else?<br \/>\n<br \/>\nPerhaps we\u2019ve mistakenly fallen into the habit of linking beauty to rarity. It is actually rather sad to think that only a very few things are lovely enough to deserve special attention. We should wish for the opposite to be true. We should hope that the world (and our homes) can be filled with things that are truly delightful and yet widely available. This little sweet container is hinting at cultural revolution.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Japanese, Sweet container (Kashiki)","painting_name":"Muromachi period 15th century \u2013 16th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292181Ca101846_srgb.JPG","stub":"only-rare-things-deserve-to-be-in-museums","order":30,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292181Ca101846_srgb.JPG"},{"id":167,"category_id":2,"name":"I hate the way I look","description":"She is not the shape a lot of people have come to idealise. Maybe she sometimes wonders if her hips are too big; someone said she has beefy thighs. But right now she is feeling confident \u2013 you can see it in way she stands: shoulders back, head up (we imagine). She is actually quite fit; it\u2019s not that she doesn\u2019t care about what she eats; it is the right shape for her.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nFeeling good about the way you look is not easy. We have seen so many images of attractive people who are impossibly perfect.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe sculptor is opening our eyes to beauty when it comes in a slightly unfamiliar guise. He is not saying no-one ever has to watch their weight, or that exercise is a waste of time.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe do not get to choose our body type. Pride doesn\u2019t make sense if you admire everything. But prejudice can get in way the appreciating what is really good. She looks great and more people should recognise this.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Gaston Lachaise","painting_name":"Torso c.1912\u201327, cast 1937","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292413Fg100965_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-hate-the-way-i-look","order":34,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292413Fg100965_srgb.JPG"},{"id":169,"category_id":2,"name":"I\u2019ve got good taste, I only like plain things","description":"Because these dishes were made more than two hundred years ago at the prestigious Meissen Porcelain Factory they would carry a huge price tag. But this general kind of thing \u2013 pretty painted plates with pictures of flowers, vegetables (and a sweet-looking camel) \u2013 need not be expensive at all. The objects\u2019 ambition is to be as pleasing as possible, to charm the eye, they are decorated in lovely colours and their edges are made into gentle curves.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThese objects are generous to the precarious- ness of our moods. You are sitting down to dinner \u2013 it\u2019s been a tricky day. You don\u2019t feel very social, your mind is on a report you didn\u2019t finish and an awkward meeting is scheduled for the morning. The plates are designed to ease us into a lighter, friendlier, more playful frame of mind. They are elegant fun \u2013 just what we\u2019d ideally like to be.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Meissen Porcelain Factory","painting_name":" c.1738\u201350","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292573INST021217_srgb.JPG","stub":"ive-got-good-taste-i-only-like-plain-things","order":36,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292573INST021217_srgb.JPG"},{"id":170,"category_id":2,"name":"I like my art to be \u2018about\u2019 things","description":"These shapes do not mean one thing in part- icular, but our minds can make something of them nevertheless; that is one of the powers of abstract art, of which this is a modest early example. So what is it \u2018about\u2019? Like music, it speaks in abstract ways, and yet can trigger our emotional chords. It seems to hit the mark exactly between our need for spontaneity and our need for coherence, for play and for logic. So often we tend to one extreme or the other: we vigorously pursue order, but become clinical and impatient with the ordinary confusion of life. Or we abandon ourselves to chance and whim but end up lost and confused.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis carpet seems to represent the vitality of life contained within the order of reason. It is a metaphor for so much: a good relationship, a great conversation, the dynamics of an orchestra, even a family. It induces a mood of serene pleasure in the interplay of complexity and order.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Nathalie du Pasquier","painting_name":"California, carpet 1982","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292647Fb100334_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-like-my-art-to-be-about-things","order":37,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292647Fb100334_srgb.JPG"},{"id":178,"category_id":2,"name":"I don\u2019t do sentimental art","description":"Although elites may feel awkward about it and dismiss it as mawkishly sentimental, this image speaks directly to the heart. A mother has lost her child; it is winter, there\u2019s no food, she knew he was in danger, she tried to feed him, she tried to keep him warm but in the end he succumbed. Her grief feels all the more real, all the more like ours, for being inarticulate and wordless \u2013 pure anguish. The crows are unbearably cruel. They gather when another is in agony, they sense the opportunity opened up by the grief of others. They are like the people we most fear \u2013 those who like it when we are miserable. The mother won\u2019t be able to stand guard always; they will win.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSentimentality is an overhasty attempt to get us to feel emotions that might be very important, in this case, compassion. The painting stands on the edge of the dangers of sentimentality, yet arguably gets away with it. The artist, August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck, has made a memorial not so much to a dead lamb as to a crucial capacity. Having this picture in our heads increases our own ability to be and feel tender.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck","painting_name":"Anguish (Angoisse) c.1878","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293486Fd101810_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-dont-do-sentimental-art","order":45,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293486Fd101810_srgb.JPG"},{"id":181,"category_id":2,"name":"Just do whatever you feel","description":"This is an image of the chaos of life. One guy in the corner has been drinking all day and now he\u2019s a mess. The man behind the bar doesn\u2019t care. The woman is going to wake up in the morning beside a grim old soak.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis is a warning picture. It reminds us of what happens if we don\u2019t control our  appetites and rein ourselves in a bit. We tend to associate art with the romantic idea of throwing off inhibition, of hedonism and freedom \u2013 wasn\u2019t art meant to be a bit crazy, a bit wild? Sometimes we need encouragement to throw off conventional restraint, to get a bit bolder and braver. But to be honest we also actually need the opposite. Our culture is full of encouragements to party.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nJan Steen is telling us some of the bad news, but it might be news we need to hear more of.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Jan Steen","painting_name":"Interior  c.1661\u201365","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293657Fd100796_srgb.JPG","stub":"just-do-whatever-you-feel","order":48,"category_name":"Culture","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293657Fd100796_srgb.JPG"}],"self":[{"id":135,"category_id":4,"name":"It\u2019s only a chair","description":"It would be fun (were it not strictly forbidden by the Gallery) to climb into this chair, pull in your legs and curl up. It would be so cosy. You could look out at the world, or maybe just at your smartphone, from within your own little contained world. You might want a pillow and a blanket to make the perfect nest.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAnother time it could be wildly exciting to find your lover sitting there naked, inviting you to join him or her. Deep in the recesses of the chair you could whisper your secrets. The designer was not thinking about what a chair was supposed to be like. He was trying to imagine unexpected but real ways a chair could make us happy.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 3<\/small>","artist_name":"Eero Aarnio","painting_name":"Globe chair, designed 1963\u201365","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290001Fa100906_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-only-a-chair","order":2,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290001Fa100906_srgb.JPG"},{"id":136,"category_id":4,"name":"Forgetfulness","description":"It\u2019s a lovely idea: making the words of a poem into a work of art. This way of presenting words is not only beautiful, but is also sympathetic to a very basic human frailty: that we forget things. At the humblest level, the shopping list was invented because we have a tendency to forget what we need when we are at the store. We might not know what this particular poem is saying, but many poems have something important to tell us. When tucked away in the pages of an anthology, poems\u2019 wise, consoling, encouraging or cautionary words are not available when we need them.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nBy making the words physically beautiful, through the elegance of the script and the soothing tone and proportions of the paper, this object becomes a decoration; something to hang in your home, to be looked at every time you pass it in the kitchen or the hall, so the words become part of you. As well as admiring this example of calligraphy we should be guided by its example and make or commission beautiful presentations of the words that mean most to us.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Arisugawa Takahito","painting_name":"Calligraphy (Shojiku), Edo period mid 19th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290068Ca000708_srgb.JPG","stub":"forgetfulness","order":3,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290068Ca000708_srgb.JPG"},{"id":143,"category_id":4,"name":"Failure to appreciate the wonder of  familiar things","description":"For us, mirrors are among the most common items of domestic life. We scarcely give a thought to the strangeness of looking at ourselves, which for so long was impossible to do, except in the stillness of a lake (if you happened to live near one). This Chinese mirror enhances the experience of looking at your reflection and seeing who you are.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAccording to this mirror, the experience of seeing your reflected image is so remarkable that you might only look at yourself  occasionally. The back of the object is beautifully and elaborately decorated \u2013 to reveal its power you need to turn it over. The symbolic birds and flowers on the back of the mirror protect and bring you good fortune, put you in the right frame of mind before turning it over. You should think more about your life and about your soul.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Chinese","painting_name":"Eight lobed mirror, Tang dynasty early 8th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290610Ca100036_srgb.JPG","stub":"failure-to-appreciate-the-wonder-of-familiar-things","order":10,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290610Ca100036_srgb.JPG"},{"id":146,"category_id":4,"name":"Too busy to look at the sky","description":"Art is a way of preserving experiences, of which there are so many transient, beautiful examples, and which we need help in containing. Imagine being in a park on a blustery April day. We look up at the clouds and feel moved by their beauty and grace. They feel delightfully separate from the day-to-day bustle of our lives. We give our minds to the clouds and for a time are relieved of our preoccupations and placed in a wider context which stills the incessant complaints of our egos. Art edits down complexity and helps us to focus, for a brief period of time, on life\u2019s most meaningful aspects.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nJohn Constable\u2019s cloud studies invite us to concentrate, much more than we would normally do, on the particular texture and shape of individual clouds; to look at their variations in colour and at the way they mass together. Constable didn\u2019t expect us to become deeply concerned with meteorology: the precise nature of a cumulonimbus is not the issue. Rather, he wished to intensify the emotional meaning of the soundless drama that unfolds daily above our heads, making it more readily available to us and encouraging us to afford it the attention it deserves.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"John Constable","painting_name":"Clouds, 1822","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290884Fd101423_srgb.JPG","stub":"too-busy-to-look-at-the-sky","order":13,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290884Fd101423_srgb.JPG"},{"id":152,"category_id":4,"name":"We are different, they were old-fashioned, we are modern","description":"This light coloured, high-waisted long dress was a cutting-edge fashion for ladies in England about two hundred years ago, at the time Jane Austen was writing her novels. We can imagine the thrill of the woman it was made for, her feeling that now she would look perfectly modern and smart. She looked at the long, narrow sleeves which extend past the wrists, and felt they were just right. She would be the envy of her friends.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe next year, however, the dress started to date. Eventually it was folded away in a trunk, stowed in an attic and forgotten. Children occasionally came across it while looking for things to dress up in and were amazed at the ridiculous, even creepy way their grandmother or great aunt had dressed. It became a period piece: a messenger from another, now strange, world. So it will be with our things.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"England","painting_name":"Dress c.1809","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291311Fb102461_srgb.JPG","stub":"we-are-different-they-were-old-fashioned-we-are-modern","order":19,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291311Fb102461_srgb.JPG"},{"id":154,"category_id":4,"name":"It\u2019s not right that things are this hard for me","description":"He hasn\u2019t done anything wrong. He has tried to help people and do what he thought was right. Now they are standing around him shouting, laughing at his humiliation, mocking him. He\u2019s just got to take it. He understands them, he knows the fear behind their insults; but they won\u2019t back off.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nChristianity made the powerful decision to show its most noble and esteemed figure \u2013 Christ, the son of God \u2013 going through extreme versions of ordinary suffering. It is incredibly hurtful to be mocked; it makes us feel alone and desperate. Why are people so cruel to you? Trying to fight back only seems to make it worse.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nYou put forward an idea that might have been interesting and get shot down; you did not match someone\u2019s expectations \u2013 you were only being yourself \u2013 and suddenly they are assassinating your character.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis wooden sculpture from the Middle Ages holds onto the idea that decent people, and people who do important, serious things, can be humiliated. It can be hard for us to believe \u2013 maybe some of the people who look successful and secure also know a lot about what failure feels like.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"France","painting_name":"The derision of Christ, mid 15th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291511Fg100996_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-not-right-that-things-are-this-hard-for-me","order":21,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291511Fg100996_srgb.JPG"},{"id":156,"category_id":4,"name":"I don\u2019t deserve to be happy","description":"He wears a really interesting look on his face. He is proud, but in a good way; he has got the confidence of maturity, which does not by any means inevitably come with age. He doesn\u2019t look down on other people, though he can come across as a bit intimidating. That\u2019s because he is not obsessed with trying to fit in with other people. He has a clear sense of what he\u2019s about and he\u2019s not going to automatically give himself to any person who happens to come along.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThat\u2019s fine, because the idea isn\u2019t that he should like us (it\u2019s only a painting), but rather that he represents a particular quality of character that we might need to cultivate for ourselves: dignity. Not the dignity of social rank, but the inward sense of taking yourself seriously.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Joseph Highmore","painting_name":"Self-portrait, c.1745\u201347","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291651Fd101556_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-dont-deserve-to-be-happy","order":23,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291651Fd101556_srgb.JPG"},{"id":160,"category_id":4,"name":"I\u2019m over religion","description":"Varuna is a powerful Hindu deity who holds sway over the oceans and is concerned with the seasons, the heavens and the proper ordering of human affairs. He is strikingly sensuous, adopting a pose that is both enticing and expressive of confident authority: a combination that feels unfamiliar in the modern West.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis carving responds to our need to keep big ideas in view and to present them in a way that feels intimate. It is sympathetic to human nature: the fact that we are at once capable of huge, cosmic leaps of the imagination and are creatures of small, immediate needs (friendliness, touch and close personal relationships). Our need is not only to understand but also to feel connected and involved.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Indian, Varuna","painting_name":"9th century AD \u2013 11th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291983Cg100084_srgb.JPG","stub":"im-over-religion","order":27,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291983Cg100084_srgb.JPG"},{"id":175,"category_id":4,"name":"The desire for closure","description":"They have just escaped from terrible danger. The Egyptian army was chasing them as they fled from Egypt. God made the waters of the Red Sea part while they scurried across then released the waters again on top of the Egyptians.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nNicholas Poussin has not shown the big drama. He\u2019s taken us to the moment when, in a way, it feels as if the story has finished. They must have been thinking, \u2018If only we can escape from Pharaoh\u2019s chariots, if only we can get to the other side, then all will be well\u2019. They are across the Rea Sea and safe, but it\u2019s not over \u2013 new difficulties and challenges are just beginning. Now they have to get all their things together, set off on a long march through the desert, find water and find enough to eat ...<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe picture says: this is the human condition \u2013 we don\u2019t get the rest (or sense of completion) we deserve.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Nicolas Poussin","painting_name":"The Crossing of the Red Sea, 1632\u201334","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292949Fd103342_srgb.JPG","stub":"the-desire-for-closure","order":42,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292949Fd103342_srgb.JPG"},{"id":188,"category_id":4,"name":"You have to be tough as nails in this world","description":"This vase is obviously a bit fragile \u2013 if it were knocked over it would probably shatter. It is not trying to be strong or resilient, it has a different agenda.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe vase is inviting us, if only for one moment, to enter into a more delicate world where you have to restrain your movements, be careful and watch what you do around it. Physical delicacy is an expression of tactfulness, of refined feeling.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIn our own lives and the lives of those around us there are areas of fragility \u2013 a harsh word at the wrong time really can be seriously wounding. If you are too brusque, too blunt, then the more interesting, more vulnerable bits of another person can risk being exposed.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nDelicacy needn\u2019t be a failing.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Lady Elizabeth Templetown, Wedgwood, Staffordshire","painting_name":"Covered vase, c.1785","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394294116Fa001559_srgb.JPG","stub":"you-have-to-be-tough-as-nails-in-this-world","order":55,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394294116Fa001559_srgb.JPG"},{"id":190,"category_id":4,"name":"Restlessness","description":"Although this painting leaves all the troubles and imperfections of life quietly aside, it does not ask us to deny that existence has many difficulties and injustices. We should be able to enjoy an ideal image such as this without regarding it as a false picture of how things usually are. A beautiful, though partial, vision can be all the more precious to us because<br \/>\nwe are so aware of how rarely life satisfies our desires.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe picture functions as a way of storing the positive, life-enhancing tranquillity of mind which is frequently undermined (in day-to-day existence) by endless irritations, disappointments and troubles. Strategic exaggerations of what is good can perform the critical function of distilling and con- centrating the hope required to chart a path through the challenges of life.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIt is more perfect and tranquil than anything we encounter outside art.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Joseph Wright of Derby","painting_name":"Lake Nemi, sunset c.1790","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394294248Fd102788_srgb.JPG","stub":"restlessness","order":57,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394294248Fd102788_srgb.JPG"},{"id":192,"category_id":4,"name":"Life\u2019s a fairly straightforward business","description":"As we stare through the open window, we see what looks like a model house. The model, however, is of the very same house into which we are looking. Perhaps if one were to open a window in the model house one would find another smaller model, just the same in there, and if the window of that house were opened ... and so on, forever.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nRene? Magritte intended his art as a corrective to overconfidence in our powers of reason. He takes us to the place where ordinary logic and rationality tips over into an eerie illogicality and chaos, where our powerful and impressive minds start to spin out of control and haunt us. We recognise the mood from nightmares and from times in waking life when things have been in danger of turning hellish. Whereas we like to forget these moods, Magritte preserves them and makes them public: it\u2019s as though he has been into our minds and found our most unnerving private thoughts. He makes us a little more comfortable with the tendency we think is uniquely our own but which are in fact very common: to go a little mad for stretches of time.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Rene Magritte","painting_name":"In praise of dialectics (L\u2019Eloge de la dialectique), 1937","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1395175263Fd100982_srgb.JPG","stub":"lifes-a-fairly-straightforward-business","order":59,"category_name":"Self","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1395175263Fd100982_srgb.JPG"}],"calm":[{"id":144,"category_id":5,"name":"It\u2019s all too much","description":"Buddhism and Christianity can seem a long way apart culturally, but at times, as in this work of art, the religions address similar needs in a remarkably similar way. Guanyin is the Buddhist counterpart of a saint, fulfilling the similar roles of hearing us when in distress, meeting us with tenderness and strengthening us to face the tasks of life.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe centrality of such figures in the Buddhist and Christian outlooks suggests that mature adult lives will involve moments of deep self-doubt, and feelings that one cannot cope alone. They are not a sign, however, that we have failed as humans. Modern society struggles to update what these figures represent and to provide a contemporary version of the traditional, nurturing being.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Chinese Guanyin","painting_name":"Jin dynasty 1115\u20131234","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290707Cg100119_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-all-too-much","order":11,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290707Cg100119_srgb.JPG"},{"id":147,"category_id":5,"name":"Mummy\u2019s boy","description":"She\u2019s looking at something else but instinctively has her hands clasped around her child. He is free to wriggle and move, but her hands are hovering, poised. She is ready to catch him and draw him back securely.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThere is a deep bond here, the child and the mother feel so close and yet are not looking at one another. They are both occupied with other things, but you sense they are deeply conscious of each other. The serene sweetness of her smile is quite serious.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWe long to find this kind of security and closeness. The picture invites us in. Because it is so hard to find this kind of relationship with another adult, perhaps we have to turn to works of art to keep in touch with these feelings. Hanging this painting on the walls of a great gallery is actually an astonishing thing: it says this kind of tenderness is hugely important and deserving of the highest respect and closest attention.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Correggio","painting_name":"Madonna and Child with infant St John the Baptist c.1514\u201315","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394290962Fd103468_srgb.JPG","stub":"mummys-boy","order":14,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394290962Fd103468_srgb.JPG"},{"id":150,"category_id":5,"name":"I can\u2019t bear to think about death","description":"The ancient Egyptian attitude to death is radically different from the one dominant in Australia today. These objects are determined to make the living pay attention to the fact that we will perish. Wealthy Egyptians contributed considerable resources to addressing the terrifying truth that death will come to us all. Awareness of death is not morbid or depressive; it is not an attack on life. It is, rather, an invitation to take ourselves and our short lifespans on earth seriously, to recalibrate our priorities and to be more generous and forgiving to our fellow mortals.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Egypt, Ushabti and overseer figures","painting_name":"New Kingdom \u2013 Ptolemaic period 1550 \u2013 30BC","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291192Bg100030_srgb.JPG","stub":"i-cant-bear-to-think-about-death","order":17,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291192Bg100030_srgb.JPG"},{"id":151,"category_id":5,"name":"The past is another country","description":"For all its magnificent finery and delicately worked gold, this face might remind you of someone you saw in the supermarket or out on the street. He looks wistful, forlorn. Across the millennia he looks at us, as if inviting us to appreciate life \u2013 what we have, but he does not. The head is an astonishing invocation of common humanity. The details and rituals<br \/>\nof his life would in so many ways strike us as utterly strange, and his beliefs might perplex us, and yet he seems, essentially, one of us; touched by emotions we share.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Egypt, Head covering of Padihorpasheraset","painting_name":"Roman Period 1st century\u2013 2nd century AD","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291241Ba100520_srgb.JPG","stub":"the-past-is-another-country","order":18,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291241Ba100520_srgb.JPG"},{"id":153,"category_id":5,"name":"It won\u2019t happen to me","description":"Once Jerome was young \u2013 he ran about the fields, he climbed trees and he got excited when he was given a bit of cake. He had a successful career. His efforts were rewarded. Now he\u2019s old and is facing the brutal facts of his mortality. The sand in the hourglass will soon run through. He is going to die.<br \/>\nHe touches a skull \u2013 a terrifying reminder of what is going to happen to his body. Like us, he is bewildered \u2013 how can this happen to me?<br \/>\nHow can it be that I, who am alive now, will one day be dead? Jerome is forcing himself to admit the truth.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe book he is reading has a picture in it of the Crucifixion. Jesus, the person Jerome has most admired, is meeting his death. If you keep the idea of death at the front of your mind, it helps you to live well. It keeps things in proportion.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Flanders","painting_name":"St Jerome c.1540","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291377Fd100852_srgb.JPG","stub":"it-wont-happen-to-me","order":20,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291377Fd100852_srgb.JPG"},{"id":157,"category_id":5,"name":"We grow up too fast","description":"She wears the finery of a fashionable young woman, but underneath she is still really a bit childish and naive. It wasn\u2019t so long ago that she was playing with dolls and thought her parents were the best people in the world. The figure in the little oval picture she is holding looks like a winsome young soldier. Yet what does she know of the difficulties<br \/>\nof relationships?<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIt is not her fault. Suddenly she has the power to attract men; if she displays her wrists the right way, puts some lace round her bodice, they are falling over her. She\u2019s entering into the adult world.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Joseph Highmore","painting_name":"Susanna Highmore, c.1740\u201345","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394291711Fd101560_srgb.JPG","stub":"we-grow-up-too-fast","order":24,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394291711Fd101560_srgb.JPG"},{"id":165,"category_id":5,"name":"Everyone must know how important I am","description":"What problem is this the answer to? Think of how insecure you would need to be about the status of your child (and of yourself) to need to proclaim it in this way.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"J. & J. Kohn, Vienna","painting_name":"Cradle, c.1878","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292310Fa101896_srgb.JPG","stub":"everyone-must-know-how-important-i-am","order":32,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292310Fa101896_srgb.JPG"},{"id":166,"category_id":5,"name":"Perfectionism","description":"This flower vase is an undramatic shape \u2013 vaguely reminiscent of an old-fashioned Australian milk bottle. Although it is lovely, it has an informal, slightly rough-and-ready feel. It belongs to the interesting class of objects that are appreciated, even cherished, for their imperfections. It is not a problem that the mottled colour is uneven, and it\u2019s charming that the lip is not completely horizontal.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWorks of art sometimes bring to special notice qualities that apply widely, not just in the gallery. Perhaps we are more generous to a vase<br \/>\nthan we are to a neighbour. Maybe we see the appeal of modesty more readily in Japanese stoneware than we do in our own lives.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nArt lets us practice. But the point is not to stick with art; it\u2019s to take what we learn here and apply it where it is most needed, in our day-to- day dealings with ourselves and other people.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small><br \/>\n","artist_name":"Japanese, Vase (Hanaire)","painting_name":"Edo period 1600\/15\u20131868","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394292366Ca100891_srgb.JPG","stub":"perfectionism","order":33,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394292366Ca100891_srgb.JPG"},{"id":182,"category_id":5,"name":"It\u2019s all too much","description":"If you needed help in everyday life, this figure with many heads and many hands would be the ideal assistant. This representation of the god Avalokiteshvara can be seen as an image of ourselves \u2013 made better. There are times when we feel a little bit like this: we race through tasks, we make decisions clearly and quickly, we are undaunted by demands, we feel in control, on top of things, even though there\u2019s a lot to do. <br \/>\n<br \/>\nAvalokiteshvara embodies how we would like to be, but often cannot be. He is a manifestation of the ideal of coping with the multiple demands of life. He is also the god of compassion and his real strength is the ability to understand and sympathise with other peoples\u2019 problems so he can help them.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Tibeto-Chinese, Avalokiteshvara","painting_name":"17th century \u2013 18th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293719Ca000159_srgb.JPG","stub":"its-all-too-much","order":49,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293719Ca000159_srgb.JPG"},{"id":184,"category_id":5,"name":"The days slipping by","description":"This is not really a characteristic winter scene \u2013 there\u2019s no snow, rain or vista of leafless trees. No-one is shivering.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis delicate image points to something else. A lot of life is made up of little moments that don\u2019t necessarily seem to mean very much. We look at something and turn away. It\u2019s over. We forget. Here we are invited to join two people in a tiny, ordinary moment. One figure is bending over to look down, the other is turning around. On the surface nothing important is happening.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe work of art is asking us to be still and calm, like the perfect winter\u2019s morning. It also asks us to relish the times when nothing is going on: when we are merely existing and being ourselves.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 1<\/small>","artist_name":"Kitagawa Utamaro","painting_name":"Winter morning (Fuyu no asa), Edo period late 18th century","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394293825Cf101670_srgb.JPG","stub":"the-days-slipping-by","order":51,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394293825Cf101670_srgb.JPG"},{"id":187,"category_id":5,"name":"Status anxiety","description":"The project of making art \u2013 paintings, sculpture, decorative arts \u2013 has throughout history been vulnerable to being coopted into a rather troublesome project: that of impressing other people. So much so that for some people art can seem synonymous with the expression of status. (It\u2019s worth restating that art can do many other things: it can help us re-appreciate the world, console us in our sorrows, guide our hopes and encourage tenderness.)<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis cup is a particularly conspicuous example of the kidnapping of art by status. It can be seen as yet one more example of greed and compulsive materialism. However, it may be better to consider the cup as a poignant example of vulnerability, intense fragility and anxiety that one\u2019s worth will be missed unless endorsed by precious materials and elaborate decoration.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIf one is slightly repelled by the object, think of it as a homeopathic dose: seeing a particularly virulent instance of the desperation to impress strengthens our antibodies. There may be no better cure for the disease of status anxiety than to see this cup in its extreme throes.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Franz Vischer","painting_name":"Standing cup and cover, c.1620","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394294025Fa000991_srgb.JPG","stub":"status-anxiety","order":54,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394294025Fa000991_srgb.JPG"},{"id":189,"category_id":5,"name":"I\u2019m not very interesting","description":"Although he is dressed in a slightly unusual way, with a fur collar on his coat and an exotic- looking cap, this man has a very ordinary face (for a thirty-something Anglo-Saxon male). He is not heroic, dazzling or handsome. It is a self-portrait: a painter\u2019s version of looking in the mirror.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe artist has recorded his normal, but not often talked about, expression: he looks like he is not very sure of himself, perhaps a bit disappointed with who he is. Maybe he gave up on a difficult but important task, or flew into a stupid rage, or messed up his finances, or broke up with someone and then realised he had made a mistake. Serious things, but not the end of the world.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThere is a lot to be said in favour of stoking up self-esteem. This picture, however, endorses another side of our nature. The artist is offering himself as our companion in the normal troubles of life.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small>Work Located at NGV International Level 2<\/small>","artist_name":"Joseph Wright of Derby","painting_name":"Self-portrait, 1765\u201368","image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/560x1000\/1394294181Fd102866_srgb.JPG","stub":"im-not-very-interesting","order":56,"category_name":"Calm","large_image":"\/dynamic\/thumbs\/960x960\/1394294181Fd102866_srgb.JPG"}]}