Overheard in a Big Art Gallery: "I guess I keep thinking that if I expose myself to enough art, I'll appreciate it."
What does she think, that learning to appreciate art works like erosion? Stand under the waterfall and let it wear you down?
Does anything work like that? Everything is an acquired taste.
Think about something you know really really well. Maybe you're into vintage cars or leading-edge cameras or specialized cosplay. I'll bet you've seen people--smart cool people, people you know and like, even--dismiss that thing you're into, based on an isolated arbitrary experience of it. And you probably thought, "Hey, that's not fair! Let me introduce you to it the right way!"
Art, music, food, literature, haute couture... It might not be enough to expose yourself to it. You might need a tour guide or at least an introduction. Ask a friend who's a big fan where she thinks you should start. Take an intro course. Check Wikipedia. Read a "for dummies" book (and then hide it because, well, really) or, better still, visit the children's library and see what they're telling ten-year-olds about the subject.
I'm not suggesting that you settle for a ten-year-old's introduction to a new subject. I am suggesting you start there. Start somewhere accessible and friendly and non-specialist. Get your bearings. Find something likeable and get to know it a bit better.
That's how you learned to love that thing you love, a bit at a time. You started with an easy-to-appreciate bit, and eventually, you acquired a taste for the more demanding stuff.
I think I stared at this bit of a Mark Rothko painting for at least ten minutes. It's hard to say, because when I get drawn into a painting I lose all sense of time. But if I were going to introduce you to abstract painting, I wouldn't start there. I'd start here or here or here.
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