The humanities, especially the visual arts, are often neglected at Thai universities because they are perceived as rarely yielding tangible results. This paper aims to demonstrate that learning to decode and talk about a painting not only require high level cognitive, visual, and language skills, but also extensive contextual knowledge, which only a background in the humanities can offer. The author analyzes several works of art as well as discusses modern aesthetics to argue that the arts are an integral part of the human experience, and therefore, should be included in general education courses at the tertiary level.