What is the best way is to really get to know, take in and enjoy great paintings?
It’s probably not trapsing around galleries for hours in the company of hundreds of other people. Galleries are hard on the feet, but there could be a social element here – that looking at the paintings on display together with strangers is part of the experience, just as we enjoy watching films at the cinema or attending a concert in the company of others.
If the larger galleries are free, as in England, one can pop in and take a look at a small section of the collection for a few minutes and then leave again. Special exhibitions can be also be worth braving the crowds for, and making pilgrimages to see specific works can be fun.
One might enjoy paintings by browsing through beautiful big art catalogues in the comfort of one’s own home (catalogues and gallery guides tend to be good value). But there’s never the right moment to do this.
Another option could be to put up art posters in the house, replacing them as soon as they become stale with familiarity. Having just written this, perhaps I should try this out. But posters are a poor substitute for the real thing.
Ultimately, we want the thrill of being face to face with the originals. Having them work their on us, there’s really nothing like it. A painting or sculpture is a unique object, which exists in only one place. Over time they deteriorate – the colours fade with sunlight and darken with varnish, and they can be attacked (Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, Rembrandt’s Night Watch) or even stolen (The Scream from an Oslo gallery, the Mona Lisa in 1911!).
We could try the smaller and more relaxed local galleries, and enjoy hunting for our favourite painting amongst those on display. But most paintings in local galleries are not really art at all, they are second-rate portraits and landscapes – craftwork with little artistic inspiration. The great names stand outside the general tradition, but it can still be instructive to understand the general standard of the times.
To make the most of a gallery visit it’s best to get familiar with some of the works beforehand. I might read up an individual painter or a school of painting. For this I turn to “Portraits” by John Berger (his style is not for everyone), Julian Barnes’ “Keeping an Eye Open”, Gombrich’s reference book “The Story of Art”, and a wonderful little book “The Meaning of Art” by Herbert Read. Also DVD series like Simon Schama’s “Power of Art” or the very excellent series “The Private Life of a Masterpiece”. We should also learn something of the other paintings of the period to really appreciate the revolutionary and impressive aspect of the masterpieces we are going to see. Otherwise we can fail to appreciate how animated and dramatic the row of disciples in Da Vinci’s Last Supper is, or the sensuality of Botticelli’s Primavera compared with other paintings up until that point. We might also learn something of the symbolism that we would otherwise miss. Many genres of paintings throughout history were charged with symbolism, and spotting the signs and allegories was an integral part of the experience.
Gallery visitors often get very little out of their visits if they don’t make an effort to study the paintings. Only when the explanations are spelt out – for example that the painting depicts a particular moment in mythical or biblical history – does it come to life for the spectator. Knowing the backstory of the work can help too – the biography of the artist, perhaps his connection with the sitter in the case of a portrait, why the painting was commissioned and by whom. This is why signing up to a guided tour can be such a great idea, something I used to avoid like the plague.
Galleries should be for appreciating the originals. Exploring artworks is a separate activity altogether. Artists and paintings can be researched is quickly and easily on line, and with art books and TV documentaries.