isiting an Art Gallery can be fun and exhilarating depending on
your interests.
Steps
- Determine how much time you want to spend in a venue in a
single session. For example, all the works in the Philadelphia Art
Museum can be casually and comfortably browsed in 2-3 hours. A
local gallery store-front can be browsed in 5 or 10 minutes.
- Determine what primary art mediums you are interested in:
Painting, sculpture, oils, watercolors, modern, realism,
representational, classical, and so on. This will help you figure
out which venues to visit.
- To figure out which mediums you have an interest in, browse
through art history books, magazines, and find out which ones look
aesthetically pleasing. You might also find which time periods and
movements you fancy as well.
- Most major cities have multiple venues for viewing art. If you
live in a place like New York, try the Metropolitan Art Museum in
NYC for your first visit. This museum has one of the greatest
variety of styles and artists and cover a wide range of art
history. You can find all the venues in the Yellow Pages or museum
and gallery directory, if you can find one. The Internet is also a
great resource.
- On your first visit, get a map of the museum collection (from
the front desk - they always have one) and become familiar with
where things are. Develop a plan of what order you will visit each
gallery in the museum. Then finish off that floor and move up to
the next floor, and so on.
- Take more time with the art work that especially interests you.
In fact, if you find some art that particularly pleases you, you
might want to spend 10 or 20 minutes with it to absorb all the
meaning. See it from a distance and as close as the guards will
allow.
- Take some time to answer these questions. See the brush strokes
- how do they flow? Capture the overall design of the artwork. Does
it seem to have sections? How about the colors? Are they
spectacular or dull? If it is a portrait does it seem to send you a
message? Sometimes in a painting a few red or orange specs of color
make the painting very exciting. If it is a modern painting or
sculpture can you tell the theme without looking at the nameplate?
What shades of blue did the artist use? Some shades affect our
circadian cycles and put us in a good frame of mind (perhaps to
sleep).
- As you go through the museum, do you recognize any art from the
art books you looked at to get ready for the visit? How does the
real version compare?
- At the end of the tour, try and re-visualize what you saw. This
will encourage your brain to remember.
Tips
- Most museums expect either a donation or have an outright
admission fee. These are usually modest in the range a few dollars,
but some museums (in New York, for example, MoMA) may charge up to
$20.
- Any time is the best time to go to a museum. Of course it has
to be open. Call them if you don't already have their schedule. If
the museum is open in the evening or during the week and you can
get off from work, these are good times to go. To avoid crowds stay
away from the weekends.
- For this reason I prefer not to go to a museum opening to view
art. However, an opening is a good way to meet people who have the
same interests as yourself. And a smaller gallery opening may be
the only time to see the art. They typically have shorter
exhibitions.
- By all means take a date. Before I was married, the museum was
a great way of establishing mutual interests and bonding with a new
partner. It also allows you to talk in softer voices and be closer
together.
- Most large museums have a shop where you can buy catalogs of
paintings by famous artists or catalogs of the works in the museum.
By all means,
