(#7) Alone at the Museum
Go to art museums alone.
It’s a quick way to discover the answers to these questions:
How comfortable are you with being by yourself? Are you good company?
What do you think when no one is around to influence you?
If I had to guess how many art exhibits I have been to in my life, the number would have to be somewhere between 75 and 100–maybe more. Out of those, I’ve only been to maybe five or six by myself. This disparity is intriguing to me.
How we experience art shapes our view of it. Some art is meant to be pondered with a group while others require solitude. We are the controllers of how much information we see in a piece of art. When we are alone at a museum, we have full agency. Do you read the wall text before or after you look at a painting? Do you read the wall text at all? Do you look at all the paintings or just one exhibition? How long do you spend with each work?
Oh, look! A bench for pondering Louise Nevelson’s lithographs.
The first time I went to an art museum on my own was about a year ago. I usually go with family or friends. For a long time I didn't have my own cadence for art viewing, just simply following along. Once I started studying art seriously, I became the designated art museum guide. I love talking about art and sharing its wonders, but sometimes when I’m with others, I feel like I’m not engaging with the art as deeply as I would alone.
When I began to understand the art, the museums and exhibitions transformed into schools. Even though I have been going to art museums since I was little, I have only just begun to comprehend the art I see. Focus on style, iconography, and context, as my art history professor would say. This information is not always easily accessible. It takes a great deal of knowledge about art and art history to truly understand what you’re looking at. Art museums are the best place to acquire this knowledge.
Going alone means it’s my time to study: I examine the curation, room layout, hidden connections and analyze compositions, techniques, meanings, and the smallest details. I will spend hours getting lost in thought, wondering if what I’m thinking even makes sense, taking notes, drawing sketches, and feeling like a poser. Windowless rooms never sounded so appealing.
When I need a break from the art, I indulge in people watching. If you stick around a room long enough, you begin to see who the seasoned art appreciators are. They’re usually older and wear sweaters, walking with their hands behind their backs with a slight tilt in their postures. I love seeing families peruse through, especially ones with babies. Do the babies know what’s going on? No, but I find it amusing when the parents hold up the child to a painting. I’m in full support in starting their art education at an early age. My second favorite category of people to observe is couples on dates. Once I saw a couple admiring a painting together but standing an awkward distance apart so I could tell this was a second or third date. The guy was attempting to explain the painting and his poor date looked so miserable (this is one of my worst nightmares).
In my experience, most museum patrons go with other people. Going by myself makes me appreciate my own company. I used to hate the idea of being alone. In fact, when I was younger, I was afraid of being by myself. Recently, I’ve consciously been spending more time alone, perhaps for the first time in my life. It’s hard to feel lonely at an art museum. Besides for the other museum goers and security personnel, the spirits of the artists saturate the rooms. I’ve always thought art is great company. The creation of the art is such an intimate act that artists cannot help but leave bits of themselves in their work. If you sit with a piece long enough, you can feel the brushstrokes on your skin.
Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you to go to an art museum by yourself. Here is my advice if you do:
Go for a minimum of two hours.
Find a piece that’s interesting and spend half an hour with it. As time passes, you become familiar with minute details and choices that the artist makes. Art is visual poetry that takes time to understand.
Read the wall text. Curators work hard on these–writing them is an art in itself. You will learn a ton by reading them.
Speaking of curation, look around the physical space in addition to the art. How is the art in conversation with other pieces in the room?
Bring a notepad and pencil (not pen!). Sit for a while and take notes. What do you like? What do you not like? Sketch some studies. You don’t have to know what you’re doing. It’s just an exercise.
Go to the cafe if there is one. You’ll probably need a break and some food. Museums can be exhausting.
