Why we love "sad art"
- Stacey Perlin
- Apr 10
- 5 min read
It's easy to say that most people prefer happy, nice, beautiful art experiences. However, when we look at the data, there is a strong argument for experiences that evoke strong emotions of despair and grief as sources of universally felt experiences. Yet we shy away from commissioning or showcasing sadness in our public art installations and exhibitions. By understanding the value of art that conveys emotions that we may see as negative, we can provoke a shift in our conscious desire for art experiences that connect us and move us toward a future that celebrates belonging, being human, and our emotional growth.
What happens when we view or experience art
Art is designed to share a perspective, with the artist charged cosmically with sharing how they see/hear/feel/experience the world. It inspires different horizons for us, hijacking what may be projected by the doomsday scrolling that makes up our news or the defeatist fatalism that may pop up while balancing the monthly budget.
"Well-created artworks may also be quite complex in their compositions and meanings, encouraging both our eyes and our minds to go down new paths and form connections they wouldn’t otherwise."
To be fair, an obvious example of the virtues of "sad" art being deeply valued and celebrated in cultures around the world would be "heartbreak" music. These songs help us feel validated in our distress, sing to us about how things went wrong or how we felt betrayed, and unify us in our dismay that love was not enough.
Much ... research has been devoted to the fundamental question as to why people would ever value expressions of sadness or other negative emotions in the first place. In response to this question, researchers have developed a number of different theories, including theories that emphasize catharsis (Aristotle 1997; Koopman 2013; Nussbaum 1986; Scheele 2001), theories that emphasize feeling connected to others (Attie-Picker et al. 2024), art-derived solace (Taruffi & Koelsch 2014; Van de Cruys, Chamberlain, & Wagemans 2017), and many others (Ahn, Jin, & Ritterfeld 2012; Busselle & Bilandzic 2008; Green, Brock, & Kaufman 2004; Green, Chatham, & Sestir 2012; Oliver & Bartsch 2011).
With this in mind, it's easy to see why couples will rush to see a play about disastrous relationships, listening intently to the poignant dialogue as they strive to connect to better understand each other, crying alongside each other in the audience. But the concept of them having uncomfortable conversations with each other may have them using every excuse in their repertoire to postpone these discussions, constantly hitting the "snooze" button in their lives.
Sadness can be easily prioritized in our thinking
This can be effectively looped into research around the negativity bias in our thinking. We tend to recognize ourselves in sad art more often and value the associated experiences more so. This is recognized in our thinking as a remnant of survival processes, and as we age, we tend to develop more of a positivity bias.
"Our ancestors who had that [negative] bias were more likely to survive," says Baumeister. Humans are hard-wired to look for threats and at just eight months, babies will turn more urgently to look at an image of a snake than a friendlier frog. By age five, they have learned to prioritise an angry or fearful face over a happy one.
Still, no matter the environment, criticism will stick in our minds more easily than compliments or praise. The correlation of online statements and reviews to our decision-making processes is a robust area of research. Although there are gaps, there are a multitude of studies that examine negative reviews and speak to how the unhappy and grim experiences affect us from an economic and wellbeing perspective (Generation, susceptibility, and response regarding negativity: An in-depth analysis on negative online reviews).
"Sorrow is somehow more grown-up, because less illusioned. It feels more sincere, more authentic."
The benefits of sadness in therapeutic art
How best to work with sadness beyond simply experiencing it? Perhaps you're fond of writing out your emotions to gain clarity through journaling, applying a brush to canvas or pencil to paper, or writing your epic love song while strumming and processing your thoughts. The idea is to continue following your feelings. What feels safe? If you're less confident with your words, choose a more abstract approach. If you're more at home with your emotional vocabulary, poetry or an essay may be more helpful.
"Sadness evoked by music is found pleasurable: (1) when it is perceived as non-threatening; (2) when it is aesthetically pleasing; and (3) when it produces psychological benefits such as mood regulation, and empathic feelings, caused, for example, by recollection of and reflection on past events."
Just as there are many reasons to want to feel differently and paths to do so, the motivations for sadness are varied and diverse. The human experience is defined by loss, grief, misery, heartbreak, and cycles of hurt. These propel us into richer, more gracious, and compassionate beings. Why not recognize them in our community-based practices and public art displays? They may do more than you think, to attract and honour the journey of those in your community.
"Just let those "lines, shapes and colors translate your emotional experience into something visual," she says. "Use the feelings that you feel in your body, your memories. Because words don't often get it."
Why bring sad art to the community?
It's about processing your emotions, rather than repressing them. That is one of the ways art woos us back to our true selves and an authentic life. As we initially stated, when we deepen our awareness and knowledge base on the value of art being outside the typical bright, lively, and joyful, we can validate those feelings within us, and those universal experiences that bring us closer together. We prioritize support that empowers us to face these feelings and celebrate the maturity that comes from working through them.
"It makes me feel alive, you know. It makes me feel human," he says. "The only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt something really good before ... So I guess what I'm feeling is like a beautiful sadness."
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