Mindfulness

SLOW ART DAY ENCOURAGES US TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH ARTWORKS. WHAT YOU SEE MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

Respecting great art through slow appreciation

There’s a woman in a kitchen. Light from a window touches the side of her face, as she concentrates on her task of the moment – pouring milk into a cooking pot. But what do you do? Do you move on to look at something else? Or stop and linger at the scene being played out before you? In fact, the woman is the subject of a painting by the famous 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (also the artist behind ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’). But, despite its renown, studies show that in reality, if we’d encountered this in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it hangs, most of us would look at the work for a matter of seconds before moving on.

Hence the need for Slow Art Day. Founded by Phil Terry over a decade ago, Slow Art Day takes place on 4 April – one day in the year when across the world, museums and galleries invite anyone and everyone to hit their personal pause buttons and stand or sit in front of works of art and observe – slowly. Slow Art Day is aimed at helping us all – not just to enjoy art more, but also to awaken our senses and become more observant generally. And it can be practised any day of the year.

This need to pause and focus isn’t something new. In the early 1920s, the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), began producing her huge, colourful flower paintings. She explained why she painted them: “Nobody sees a flower – really – it’s so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time.”

Though we spend most hours of our days with our eyes wide open, we certainly don’t spend that time seeing. We are so swamped visually that we simply can’t take it all in, and there’s a difference between looking and seeing. To look means to turn your eyes in a particular direction, while to see, you have to become aware of someone or something through your eyes. For some, this comes naturally, but for a lot of us, it’s a skill that needs to be sharpened.

WHY BOTHER?

Even if you’re a regular gallery goer, there’s always the temptation to equate a visit to a gallery with cramming in a ‘must see’ at a packed exhibition. The Musée du Louvre reports that each visitor to the Mona Lisa studies it for an average of just 15 seconds. Fifteen seconds to notice every brush mark, colour and details of the most famous painting in the world. What’s the point?

The answer lies in all the things a work of art can give us – if we give it time, and a bit of work. It can help us understand past civilisations, to appreciate stories, history, skills, ideas, colours, shapes, forms and creativity, to see things from different viewpoints, to make us feel calm, uplifted, happy, determined, empathetic – and

"WE, THE VIEWERS, ARE AS CRUCIAL AS THE ARTISTS”

more. It can show us the beliefs, dreams, habits and ideas of other people, societies and eras. It can offer insights into human behaviour.

But don’t be hard on yourself and expect all that instantly. At the very least, spending time looking at art offers a pause: we step back, from our inner worlds, worries and lives and, during that time, we are beyond ourselves, away from our day-to-day problems. Artists from thousands of years ago to our own time have had their own issues and included all that they are, have seen and are going through in their art. At its most extreme, haven’t we all felt like the figure in Munch’s ‘The Scream’ at one time?

By looking at art, we can see we are not alone. And as much as all artists are unique, so is everyone’s experience of it. Artists make art with the purpose of having people look at it; it’s participatory, and although it can admittedly be intimidating, it shouldn’t be. We, the viewers, are just as crucial as the artists, and our viewpoints, opinions and reactions are all valid.

So whoever you are, and whatever you know or don’t know about art, here are some new ideas to consider about ways to approach it.

HOW TO LOOK

Go to a gallery or museum – any that you can. Try visiting early in the morning or late in the afternoon when there will be fewer visitors. If you feel intimidated, look around and notice that there are no ‘types’; art is enjoyed by people of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities.

There’s no right or wrong way to look at art. You really don’t have to immediately ‘get it’ in order to appreciate it, sometimes it’s better to mull it over. Any experience with any art is worthwhile but take your time, this is slow looking. Decide to spend at least ten minutes looking at one work of art. If you’re with someone, do this on your own, then meet after to discuss. You might want to return after your discussion and see what else you discover.

Don’t feel you have to head straight for gallery’s most famous work, choose anything that catches your eye. Walk towards it, taking it all in. Try and resist heading straight to the label, and instead note its size, colours, what’s around it, what impact it’s making on you.

What else do you notice? After about 30 seconds, look away and try to remember everything you observed. Now look back at the work again. What details did you remember? What did you forget? What are your first, overriding impressions? Walk closer. Now what do you see? Think about shapes, lines, colours, textures, composition ( layout or arrangement), materials and subject matter – if any of those are relevant. It can help to focus your gaze by asking yourself a few questions – there are some ideas below.

Don’t just stay in one place – stand, sit or move around the artwork, exploring it from »

different angles (if you’re in London in The National Gallery, look at ‘The Ambassadors’ by Hans Holbein the Younger, from the left-hand side, close up, and see what you discover), and compare it from far away and as close up as you can get without alarming security. Take time enjoying your moment away from the hustle and bustle of life. It’s just you and the artist.

Now it’s time to look at the label. You might be surprised how much you know about an artwork from your general knowledge. Note the year it was made. What was happening when and where the work was produced? Art is a reflection of society and artists respond to their own time periods, socially, politically and environmentally. In general, more modern or contemporary art is not as easy to understand as more traditional art, and it can be helpful to know a bit about the artist and ideas that inspired the work in the first place.

Of course, the experience doesn’t have to end in the gallery. Thanks to the internet or your library, you can follow up on whatever aspects of the work you found most interesting. Art is not a science. There are no ‘right answers’; your interpretation is as valid as anyone’s, and ‘facts’ often change as new things are discovered, new links made. Art historians frequently revise their analyses, as new information comes to light. For instance, for years, The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (1434, The National Gallery, London), showing a couple holding hands, was interpreted as a marriage; we now know that it wasn’t. Likewise, styles and artists fall in and out of fashion, and artists are being discovered and rediscovered all the time. For example, it was once believed Kandinsky was the first artist to produce an abstract painting, but we now know it was a woman called Hilma af Klint, and that Lee Krasner directly inspired her husband Jackson Pollock with her intuitive painting approach. And just look at the fluctuating fame of Vermeer…

Susie Hodge, alongside co-author Dr Gareth Moore, is the author of The Art Puzzle Book (White Lion Publishing)