Reading the World: ‘The Stillness Was a Gift’

I came across this episode of the BBC Outlook programme, an emotional and powerful reminder that art is something that lives with us, surrounds us, and holds us when we need it most. Through a deeply personal story, great artworks become intimate companions in grief, and healing.

Over the years, Patrick Bringley counted more than eight thousand painted human figures in the halls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each of them carries a life – marked by joy and suffering, triumph and loss. They continue to live through our gaze, resonating in our emotions and folding our own experiences into a much larger human story. It is, ultimately, a story about learning to find wisdom in stillness.

Originally broadcast on the BBC World Service. Listen here