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Kate Alexander's avatar

Perhaps status and power is only another form of expression of the human desire to connect to the past and present (and future) of humanity, as our societies are structured around immortalising the important and the powerful.

When I was visiting Japan in spring a few years ago, I overheard an American woman ask the tour guide as we walked through the sea of cherry blossoms - “Who was the man responsible for planting all the cherry trees?” I thought it was such a great sum of American cultural mentality - always a single man responsible for something great and marvellous. She was not very satisfied when the guide responded that there was no such man, it was a tradition that evolved over generations.

Thanks for sharing, Brian. Made me close a few online shopping browser windows, full disclosure.

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Ro's avatar

I need to sit and contemplate this essay more (and I will) but one small point—I have had some rather transcendent experiences running through huge museums, getting lost, even photographing things because the museum is about to close, and I want to look at them but I don’t have time. I even did this once when I was ill (not contagious) and was almost crawling out the door because I was so weak and the museum was so huge and I had run through it. I admit it’s more exciting if you get to a weird part of the museum with the art nobody is excited about and you are all alone. Maybe spending time in those corners was more amazing, but I don’t know if there really is ONE right way to look at art. It’s amazing to spend a lot of time on one painting, and it’s amazing to be in some absurdly crowded show where everyone is going nuts and you can barely see and it’s amazing to see the sweep of 20 paintings from one period, and run around between them, and it’s amazing to stumble across something very obscure and just get interested in it for a long time some reason. I used to go to my city’s non-impressive art museum constantly as a child, and look at the same paintings over and over. Sometimes a small museum with 20 obscure paintings can also be an incredible experience. I don’t know what will make the magic happens so I do all the things, and something happens that is weird and elevating and it doesn’t seem to follow any specific pattern—it’s more a matter of surprise for me. The ‘great painting’ may not have the same effects as others. And I still don’t know enough about art but it can do different things at different times, and the contemplation method is cool but I think the ‘scanning and wandering aimlessly’ method also has virtues.

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