Art in this view is a form of visual foreplay for the grand climax of object recognition. The law of perceptual problem solving, or peekaboo, should now make more sense. It may have evolved to ensure that the search for visual solutions is inherently pleasurable rather than frustrating, so that you don’t give up too easily. Hence the appeal of a nude behind semitransparent clothes or the smudged water lilies of Monet.
Ramachandran, V.S. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. (via carvalhais)