The Practice of Looking

It’s 5 pm on the weekend, and your friend has invited you to an art gallery’s opening show. You do not know anything about the showcasing artist, you barely understand art, and everyone is asking you what you think.

For as long as I have attended art shows, there has always been the inevitable question posed through interested eyes: What do you think? There is this need to get it, to completely understand in one go, what it all means.

Where do you start in your search for meaning when art is still a new thing for you?

You must strengthen your eyes; you need to know what you are looking at.

First, identify what type of art it is: is it a painting, a sculpture, mixed media, collage, photograph, installation, concept art, etc.? Is the art representational or abstract?

Is there a focal point, a spot on the artwork your eye naturally draws to? Does the art require something of you? Do you have to move around it, pick it up, or hold it?

How do you feel: delight, disgust, indifference? Where is the art housed, in a museum or a non-profit art gallery? Understand the power an institution gives an artwork, and what type of blanket meaning it gives it.

Art requires an audience; therefore, do not put your feelings as secondary. Value your role as the audience, I would argue it is the best thing to be. As the critic, you have to decipher, cite, contextualize, and theorize the art. As the critic, you have to be in conversation with the ideas before and as they’re happening.

As the artist, you are creating and expressing your ideas, striving toward your goal in hopes it can be understood. As the audience, simply being there has accomplished half of our task; the other half is to look.

The practice of looking is a skill. Honed over time with repeated practice. I have always wondered why people don’t revisit art shows. Why the one-time viewing? Of course, the stakes will be high if you are only allowed the one shot. Try to visit as much as it delights you to. Shows run from weeks to months; take advantage of that fact. And if you are lucky enough to go to an opening of a gallery’s show, the artist will most likely be there. Why not ask them how they felt creating these pieces?

Art is not created unattached from our world. Yes, art is made for art's sake; try to change your perception. See artworks as the artist trying to express an idea, each artwork an attempt rather than the final say. I guess I have just made pinning down the meaning of the artwork a tad harder for you. But the thing about art is, just as you get a say, the art gets one to.

My advice is to look as much as you possibly can; you don’t have to leave with a concrete opinion if one does not come to you. This is not to promote anti-intellectualism, to stop people from thinking, reading, and engaging. But a call to take a beat, to slow down. We think we must capture meaning all in one go. Forgetting things can change and reveal itself to us at a later time. Anti-intellectualism is not working at it, forgoing effort. Keep coming back and trying again, and again. Look the fool for it, uncaring if others see your struggle.