A lecture in the perception in art at National Gallery

On a chilly September night, I walked through the bustling, atmospheric streets of Fitzrovia. Proud Georgian buildings; shops, restaurants, bars and cafes spilled patrons onto the glistening streets.

I rushed passed the landmarks of Trafalgar's fountains and Nelson's column, pausing briefly to take in David Shrigley's disproportionate giant thumb sculpture on the fourth plinth.

The destination was the palladian National Gallery, for a lecture in The Art of Perception: Rethinking How We See, delivered by writer and art historian, Amy Herman. 

Deep in its bowels, the bunker-like lecture theatre filled with people of all ages and genders, eagerly anticipating the American art consultant who has helped the FBI, Navy SEALs and Homeland Security with her skills in perception.

This notion baffled me. Amy, with her typically American, infectious and engaging presentation style, quickly addressed it. Changing the way you look at art helps get to the bones of what's going on in a situation. 

She had an enthralling PowerPoint presentation with different images of famous paintings. She showed these, side by side and asked what's the obvious difference between these two pictures:

Did you get it? The first is a painting by Honore Daumier and the latter is a photograph by Robert Mapplethrope. Does that help?

Perhaps it's that one features a black man or they're topless. Perhaps it's that the former isn't posed or they're inebriated... All answers are true, but they're not the biggest difference. The biggest difference is that one is photo and the other is a painting.

Now that I've told you, much like when Amy told us, it's so obvious. How could we have missed that fundamental difference? Sometimes the truth is hiding, not in what it's trying to tell us but in how it is told to us. 

We're so concerned in seeing what we're shown or what we want to see, we don't see the obvious truth.

And by examining art with a new perspective, it can help understand everyday life with fresh eyes. 

Nothing seemed more pertinent in a post-Brexit, Trump dominated world. We need to change our perception on things like the liberals v alt-right, in an era of fake news and alternative facts, that perhaps seeing things in a different way will help empathise and understand that sometimes life isn't binary. Seeing the most obvious, will actually open our eyes to the deeper truth.

So my little journey through familiar roads and iconic landmarks, I stopped seeing tourist postcards and Instagram moments and started seeing what it all meant. I saw inspirational leader and strategist, Admiral Nelson and his victories in the Napoleonic Wars, I saw John Nash's splendid vision of London, I saw the ghost of Charing Cross tube station, I saw the art students from St Martins, I saw centuries of protesters who fought for me to be here, I saw homeless people ignored by suits - each with their own tragic story and I saw me. A girl, trying to feed her soul and heart.