After spotting a mention of the list in a New York Magazine book review of economist Tyler Cowen’s new book, I searched Cowen’s blog to see if he had included his tips for visiting an art museum there. (Presumably the list is in his book, too.)
The entry appeared about two years ago. The impetus for writing on the subject, a post on Two Blowhards blog, actually has some interesting commentary about different people’s styles for moving around a museum.
Cowen’s post is a little more pragmatic attempting to strip away any pretense in one’s relationship to the art itself.
“A key general principle is to stop self-deceiving and admit to yourself that you don’t just love “art for art’s sake.” You also like art for the role it plays in your life, for its signaling value, and for how it complements other things you value, such as relationships and your self-image. It then becomes possible for you to turn this fact to your advantage, rather than having it work against you. Keeping up the full pretense means that you must impose a high implicit tax on your museum-going. This leads you to restrict your number of visits and ultimately to resent the art and find it boring.”
As cynical as it may sound, it might be the most honest way of approaching art, be it visual or performing, that I have heard. I have yet to attempt embracing this view in practice.
He offers a couple suggestions about experiencing visual art that can make the encounter interesting for novices including trying to decide which work in each room you might take home and why and going with other people to see it through their eyes.
He also gives people permission not to like what they see noting that many museums display “large numbers of second-rate paintings by first-rate artists. Try to find them. Don’t think it is all great, it isn’t.”
A museum probably wouldn’t be well served by having docents pass these last bit of instructions on to tour groups. Some of the other exercises he and other suggest would probably make the experience even more engaging. Intimating that each work is more masterful than the last is probably confusing and ultimately alienating to people who are pretty sure it simply is not so.
