Sense of seeing
May 4th, 2024
Art can be wholly exhausting. Looking at art can be painfully intense. A simple visit to a museum can be an ordeal. Being in close proximity to works of art can be a risk to mental and physical health. I know all that. And I still cannot wait to see more art and visit more museums, no matter the risks and sanity.
Over the years, I developed a set of specific routines to help me deal with the experience of art and its beauty and its grotesque and its importance and its exhaustion. I had to learn how to deal with the physical experience of art and not lose my mind and be overwhelmed with either the quantity or quality of beauty on display.
Big museums are easy. They can get tiresome for my legs, but I know how to keep my mind from being overwhelmed. I move with the crowd or with the instructions from the guide as to where to start and approach each room and each gallery the same way. First, I look around and scan all the works of art to assign priority. I don't try to see every work of art there, that would fry my mind quickly. I try to concentrate on the particular works, which, from the first look, left an immediate impression on me. Then I move in for a closer inspection. If there is enough time and I still feel up to the task, I can go and revisit the galleries to see more from a closer level.
Small museums require a different routine. There I put an effort to see all the works of art in the same way. I move in first for a mid-distance look. I don't look at the titles but just scan every piece of work up and down for systematic analysis in my head. Then I take off my glasses and move in for a closer look. Then I can acknowledge the title and other information written about that work and look at the details of the technique and the overall sense of that work of art. After I am done in a particular room in a small museum, I put on my glasses and stand in the middle to look at everything again — from a distance. I look for something still to speak to me, to move in for a closer look again, and, when I feel satisfied, I move on to another gallery.
I saw this painting above today. I did all that I described above. And there was something more to that— I kept going back to that painting for another look. I still don't feel satisfied if I look at it enough…
