The Guardian’s view on art and health: This masterpiece can heal body and soul too | Editorial

IIn an age of exhaustion and doom, there is a therapeutic alternative hanging on the gallery wall. When volunteers at the Courtauld Gallery in London stood before them Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Covered Ear, Manet’s Bar in the Folies Bergère, and Gauguin’s Ti RerioTheir levels of stress and inflammation decreased compared to those of volunteers watching the versions. Science suggests that original art is a drug that one can view rather than swallow.

It is known that art can lift morale. But the fact that it calms the body is new. A study conducted by King’s College London Participants were asked to look at artworks by 19th-century Post-Impressionist artists—such as Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, and Gauguin—while they were tied to sensors. Half the group viewed the originals in the gallery, while the other half viewed copies in the laboratory. The results were clear: going to art galleries is good for you – it relieves stress and reduces the risk of heart disease, as well as boosting the immune system.

There is growing evidence to support this view. Earlier this summer, a team of psychologists in Cambridge conducted a study Similar project at Kettle’s Yard Gallery to show how an appreciation of artistic beauty helps us escape “the mental trappings of everyday life.” These experiences follow Research published last year by the Department for Culture, Media and Sportto measure improvements in physical and mental health from participating in creative activities, as well as economic gains – estimated at an average of £1,000 per person per year, as a result of improved work productivity and fewer trips to the GP. Nature magazine review Current science suggests that art can play a role in overall health, especially in preventing chronic disease. For the first time in its 202-year history, The Lancet recently published an illustrated article showcasing how art can enhance lives.

“When you experience a work of art, you don’t just see it, you feel it,” writes art historian Katie Hessel in her new book. How to live an artful life. “The best thing we can do is spend some time on it.” Time, of course, is what we lack in today’s hectic world. But this seems to be the key to the healing powers of art. Galleries are quiet and contemplative places. We stop scrolling and start really looking. Deep engagement with the work of art leads to “psychological detachment” – that is, seeing the bigger picture. As Iris Murdoch wrote: “Great art liberates us; it enables us to see and enjoy what is not ourselves.”

When creativity is outsourced to artificial intelligence, art galleries bring us face to face with human genius. When we notice the intensity of the brushstrokes in Van Gogh’s Self-Painting with the Covered Ear, we feel the pain behind it. As Auden reminds us Museum of Fine ArtsHis wonderful paintings teach us about human suffering, and our everyday indifference to it.

We advise you to exercise and eat healthy food. Will doctors soon prescribe a visit to a local gallery or museum? Against the backdrop of declining visitor numbers and funding crises, these studies provide another incentive to increase investment in the creative sector. The government’s £270 million funding package to support England’s “crumbling cultural infrastructure” earlier this year was welcome. But more needs to be done to ensure everyone has access to what the team behind the King’s College study called “cultural exercise for the body”. Art is vital not only to a nation’s economy, but to its health. You can’t argue with science.