Steve met me for a couple of days in Chicago – he’s a fun guy to explore with. One of the things we squeaked in was a sprint around the Art Institute of Chicago on their free night (yikes… regular admission is $16). AIC boasts some top works, including a sumptuous banquet of Impressionism, and Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte.”
I wouldn’t say that Impressionism is my favorite period of art (yes, I know - blasphemy!) Nor do I consider Seurat a fave within the genre, but I do make point of seeing the game changing works when opportunity presents, and La Grand Jatte was certainly a pivotal work in the arc of Impressionism.
One of the things I learned while teaching at JMU is that our current crop of students, for the most part, think that they know a work when they’ve seen its image. I was surprised to find when assigning a gallery visit paper that I had to clearly state “no online exhibitions.” Such is the saturation of media and imagery that, bless them, they are satisfied with that as their experience… ergo the pesky “go SEE something in a gallery/museum and write about it” assignments.
AIC let you take pix as long as you turned off the flash. So above is a detail shot of La Grand Jatte. This is one of the places where, despite being able to take home my “I was there image” no amount of pixels can compensate for seeing the real thing. The range of colors that Seurat used challenge the camera’s balancing algorithms, and the result, while great, still pales when seeing the brush strokes. The camera allows us to condense a vast canvas into our hand, or the page of a book. It makes flat every nuance of dimension in the paint. That image can’t tell the story of the blue next to the peach next to the green next to the gold. It won’t show you the lusciousness of a thick swab of paint next to a delicate glaze. It certainly won’t allow you to experience the emotional punch that the scale of a work can impart. These stories can really only be told in a face to face conversation with the work.
So here I am, debating another side of the “let us take pictures” argument. Yes, please, let us take them. But seriously, folks, don’t let them be the only way you see art.
2 comments:
I love how you write! So enjoyable and in this case, so very, very true. We students, need to experience art in the tangible sense to honestly feel it's presence. Missing you!
-Kate
It would always sadden me when I saw visitors at the National Gallery spending the whole time with a video camera glued to their eye, the replica was never going to be a comparison to just looking at the piece.
One of my favorite things about Melbourne was the NGV was free and so I would go at least once a week, it really allows you to enjoy the works because you can give just one your attention and really explore it.
however.... $16?!?!? ahk! whats that all about?
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