Why art is necessary

I was surfing the web looking for more information about Mary Early's wax sculptures when I came across this review by Michael Sullivan from a couple years ago in the Post. He pretty much sums up the profound importance of surrounding yourself with art.

I was unprepared for the profoundly physical impact of being in the same room as these strange yellow objects.

For one thing, you can smell the beeswax, with which they are covered, even before you enter the gallery. For another, they seem not just to glow with light from within, but to generate heat. What do they mean? I have no idea, but their presence, their thing-ness , is so strong, and their pull so powerful, that it was hard to tear myself away.

That's why people still go to art galleries. And that's why people still want to own art: so they can look at it again and again, and always find something new. It's the same reason some people go to church. To experience something so magnetic, and so mysterious, that it's almost sacred.