"Only connect!"

During gallery time, I oftentimes like to imagine works of art as dinner guests. Which would I like to sit next to? 

Take the Abstract Expressionsists. I rather fancy Adolph Gottlieb. He painted with wit, and I can imagine having a rollicking good time with him. After dinner, when the mood becomes more restful, a comfy arm chair and conversation with the Philosophy graduate Barnett Newman on one of his good days. Most likely never Clyfford Still. Too prickly and anti-social. Among other things, he stipulated in his will that upon no account was he ever to be hung next to another painter. (That’s why he keeps his own company on the 2nd Floor of SAM)

For me, art is all about the conversation: with yourself, with the artist, and with each other. Too often folks shuffle through museums in silence, missing the opportunity for revelation. In order to get the most out of a piece of art, one has to open up to it. There’s an art to it, just as there is to getting the most out of a dinner party. Where and how you direct your attention determines how much you’ll enjoy the event. 

Most recently, I had the pleasure of going on tour with a couple who have been married for over 40 years. At this point they move almost as one entity, exchanging as much with silence as with words. As we moved through the gallery, they opened up more and more to what we were seeing until it got to a point when they noticed they were experiencing different reactions to the same work. It wasn’t the fact that they felt differently about a piece. We all experience that when touring with another. It was HOW they expressed themselves that changed, growing richer and more subtle to a point that the husband stood marveling at what he was hearing from his spouse. The tour had become as much about what they were seeing in themselves as in the works around them. 

That’s the best kind of tour, and it’s one I wish for all of you, because the quality of a work of art is determined by the quality of the conversation. And if you find yourself on a tour that isn’t leaving room for that, I encourage you to break off and go your own way. 

As the British writer E.M. Foster once wrote, “Only connect!”. Bridge the divide between your head, your heart, your companion and the painting. Listen to your emotions and share them. You’ll be all the richer for it, leaving the gallery with a gift that keeps on giving.