Slow down, see art

August 31, 2018 7:40 AM

A small museum attempts to slow down the visitor and encourage contemplation. (SLWAPO) In doing so, it finds itself at the center of the debate about museums, access, Instagram, and the "Mona Lisa Moment."
posted by PussKillian (10 comments total)

Related, also from the WAPO: The National Gallery’s next leader will have a chance to reshape the museum. If the museum allows it: "The search for the next director of the National Gallery of Art has revealed deep divisions within the federally funded institution, a palace of high art that is dogged by old-fashioned ideas about museum operations and staff claims of widespread mismanagement."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:42 AM on August 31, 2018

I don't really get it, I think. For every room in a museum swarming like the Mona Lisa, there's... all the other rooms. If you want to have a slower experience of, say, the Louvre, just hang out in the less popular galleries.

Special exhibitions in some places can be real nightmares, but they often already have timed entry.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:00 AM on August 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

So my hometown of Potomac, Maryland is going to be known nationwide for the opportunity to spend hours contemplating a work of postmodern art. And besides that season of Real Housewives, there's a new museum!
posted by escabeche at 8:11 AM on August 31, 2018

I thought the Mona Lisa room was AMAZING. I spent 20 or 30 minutes there, watching the people watching the Mona Lisa, and the different expressions on their faces.

(I spent another 20 minutes or so watching the Mona Lisa itself - and really came to appreciate its power).
posted by jb at 10:42 AM on August 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

I visit a fair number of museums, and I wish they had more diverse options for sitting in rooms with the art. Some of my favorite gallery experiences have been in places where benches in the middle of the room-- or in front of a major piece-- allow you to sit and soak it in, without feeling like you're in line, or in someone else's way.

I understand why there are reasons that museums don't always offer this option, but I still wish more would.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:16 PM on August 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

I feel like there has been a tremendous shift in the last 20 years or so. I go to Rome pretty often, but not often to the really big destinations, and when I went last year (with my father and his wife) to the Vatican Museums, it was way way crazier than I remembered back in 1998, the last time I visited that particular institution.

I have to say that some rooms were just impossible to take a breath in, and it makes me sad. I don't know how people get much out of the kind of group tours I saw, but I also don't know how to mitigate for those things; if you limit the number of people per block of time, you create a huge backlog of people who want to visit, and likely make it pretty impossible for some.

A more evil part of me just wants to ban cameras and especially selfie sticks in art museums, because the point of looking at art shouldn't be to produce photo proof that you visited this famous thing (this is also pretty hypocritical of me, because I have taken a ton of photos of works of art, just not *selfies*).

I have to hope there's some strategy to fix these broken experiences, though.
posted by lackutrol at 12:32 PM on August 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Some of my favorite gallery experiences have been in places where benches in the middle of the room-- or in front of a major piece-- allow you to sit and soak it in, without feeling like you're in line, or in someone else's way.

Agreed! Good pieces often need long contemplation.

Do you think many art galleries/museums would allow a small folding stool?
posted by jb at 1:35 PM on August 31, 2018

I think you're right, lakutrol - the difference between my trip to Italy in 2000 and my trip in 2018 was pretty marked. There were more crowds everywhere and getting through the Vatican was insane.

I like some "instagram friendly" art stuff - the Kusama show was so much fun, everybody sort of cheerfully being amazed and taking photos. But I also like a lot of quiet looking.

jb, a lot of museums do allow small folding stools, I think. We provide them to visitors (they hang on a hook inside the exhibition space) if you'd rather use one than one of the benches (which are not in every gallery.)
posted by PussKillian at 1:49 PM on August 31, 2018

One of the great joys of living in France and England in the eighties was free access to museums -- often half- or wholly-empty, especially early in the morning in a rainy November. I had almost no money, but by god I had time.

The best experience was a gallery in Hamburg that appeared to be full of uninteresting 18th and 19th century religious art, until I stumbled on the other half of it, crammed with miles and miles of Neo-Expressionist stuff, all painted within the previous decade and absolutely glorious. I was alone -- it was completely empty -- and I spent about 4 hours in there.

The more popular places, like the Louvre or the Tate or the Pompidou, were wonderful if you had time to circle back to avoid the crowds. I loved the Mona Lisa room at the Louvre, because it was full of other Renaissance pieces that everyone was ignoring in favor of the Mona Lisa. I spent a lovely 20 minutes with the Virgin of the Rocks.

I'm sure it's different now -- the galleries I've been in lately are certainly more crowded and I'm not visiting in peak season.
posted by jrochest at 1:02 AM on September 3, 2018

jb, I often call ahead to museums and galleries to ask about seating (in Europe rather than the US) and they are always accommodating.
posted by ellieBOA at 2:31 AM on September 3, 2018 [1 favorite]