Context

Context has a great influence on how we perceive our world. We judge the value or importance of a thing based on what is around it. For example, when a famous violinist played in a subway station, no one recognized him or gave him any attention. Because the musician was playing in a subway and not a theatre, the pedestrians did not give him a second glance. When I visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), I had a similar thought to this. I have seen several pieces of modern paintings that I believe the average person, or even a child, could create. When I had gone to a friend's house I had seen a framed drawing that my friend or one of their siblings had done when they were a child. At first glance, I thought it was a small piece of modern art. As I got closer I saw that it was just a child's drawing on a sheet of paper.
Because the context of the drawing was it hanging on a wall, the same as I had seen many of works of modern art, my brain quickly assumed that the piece was modern art as opposed to a child's drawing.