How much do people care about art?

This is the first question that came to my mind when I walked into the auditorium where a 90 minute session on 'Art Appreciation' was being held. I was hoping to gain some tips on understanding what make a painting great . By a long shot, I was also hoping to implement the knowledge I gained into taking better photographs. I have very little in my portfolio about which everyone can be consensually proud.

And the reason for that thought to cross my mind was that there were only 4 people in the audience. Speaker and organisers combined, there were 3 others!Had the organisers known the answer to the above question, maybe they would not have booked a 250-size auditorium for the event. Before the lady started talking a couple of men walked in, but we still did not have enough people to need a mike for the talk.

Probably, I am one of those who use their left brain more than they use their right and would like to know what it means to be able to use the latter one better. This is probably why I began to take photography seriously. In my endeavours, I have been able to take technically good photographs, aided by a great camera, but have failed to undestand why some photographs would be deemed good, while I thought they were pretty simple and vice versa . It has probably more to do than just the interplay of the five elements of a fine picture. Undersanding that is one journey that will never end.

About the session itself, apparently, I had misread the agenda. THe speaker,CH,spoke eloquently about Indian art, its brief history and about the position of Indian art in international market, about the contemporary masters, established painters and the upcoming artists. CH no doubt did justice to her day's task. She touched upon a subtle point about buyers of art today. She clarified that, in India, as has been seen overseas in the past, a lot of people buy a painting for same reason why they would buy a piece of land; ROI. While a true connoisseur would buy the painting for it's appeal, value and the feeling it invokes in her, and let the painting grow on her, many current buyers do it because they can see the painting fetch more dollars for them over the next few years. That's it, more $$$.

I had never really thought seriously about art investment, obviously because I do not have the money. So, when CH began talking about how to go about buying a painting, I had to overcome a lot of force that wanted me to walk out of there. But I stayed.After all, if I left, she would lose a seventh of her audience that evening!