Art museums are so much more enjoyable to me when I can just pop in the headphones and not be dragging a boyfriend around.
{I saw many couples out on dates. They always looked so bored. Go to a movie and end both of your misery. Having a date in an art museum doesn't make you more cultured, wanting to be there is where the culture comes from.}
{I saw many couples out on dates. They always looked so bored. Go to a movie and end both of your misery. Having a date in an art museum doesn't make you more cultured, wanting to be there is where the culture comes from.}
But this post is not about that. Excuse my cynicism.
I am always perplexed as I walk through the pure white rooms, wooden creaky floors, and silence. Always an eerie silence, unless it is crowded. My disconcertion arises because of this; when you take artwork away from its day, its setting, its brother and sister paintings, and put it in a white box...well it's like putting an exotic or extinct creature inside a white cube.
It is no wonder that people don't understand art. Without the proper habitat and knowledge of current events (an ornate Victorian manor, a Grecian temple, a Frank Lloyd Wright building, industrialization, world wars, civil rights movements, etc.) the paintings become obtuse. Art is just as much a historical artifact as it is brush strokes, composition, and canvas. A simple card with a few sentences does little to help the uneducated eye understand the importance of what they are perceiving. I know the big white box setting keeps things objective, but the objectivity does little to aid in understanding the rows of paintings behind glass and barriers. But, sadly, it looks like I'm simply complaining. I'm just tired of being excited and enthralled by a piece of artwork, but only because I'm educated about the artist and the method. I don't think I'm special in this; any person with a basic education and interest in what they are looking at would have a much similar response.
I just want everyone to love art, to feel art. I want people to look at a painting and feel a catch in their throat. I want them to stand in awe the way people once did in gothic cathedrals, feeling closer to God.
And how can we do this if we don't understand it?
This rational, sterile world isn't good for me. I want a renaissance.
I am always perplexed as I walk through the pure white rooms, wooden creaky floors, and silence. Always an eerie silence, unless it is crowded. My disconcertion arises because of this; when you take artwork away from its day, its setting, its brother and sister paintings, and put it in a white box...well it's like putting an exotic or extinct creature inside a white cube.
I just want everyone to love art, to feel art. I want people to look at a painting and feel a catch in their throat. I want them to stand in awe the way people once did in gothic cathedrals, feeling closer to God.
And how can we do this if we don't understand it?
This rational, sterile world isn't good for me. I want a renaissance.
What you artists need is to get rid of jokers like this guy, Sean Scully. He had the whole top floor to himself when the museum re-opened last year. About 100 painting of rectangles, not worth the canvas they were on.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?art_id=2896
Total joke.
I rarely take the time to appreciate art (at least, the kind on canvas), but when I do, I LOVE it. Especially when it's tied in with history. History, English, and Art, when tied together, make for my favorite stuff; they make writing papers enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteToo bad I'm a science major, where we work within literally white and sterile boxes.