A Practice in Meditation

I went to the Art Institute in Chicago recently. When I was younger I hated museums–especially art museums. I was very vocal about my dislike for art, especially anything old and archaic.

I’ve developed more appreciation for art now, although my attention spans at museums still isn’t very long. I had read that the average person spends maybe less than 30 seconds looking at any one piece of art, but how much can you actually see in 30 seconds? A blog post about visiting museums suggested picking a painting and sitting in front of it for 15 minutes to see what happened, rather than trying to see every single painting in a museum.

I decided to try this experience at the Art Institute. I wandered around to find if any particular piece spoke to me.

I came upon The Girl by the Window by Edward Munch.

It was striking, and I felt more interested because I had been to Edward Munch’s house this summer (in Rostock, Germany). The blend of colors, the glowing window, and the texture and movement of the marks all kept my attention.

The first minute I stood looking at it, I felt really bored. It was a nice painting to look at, but there was only so much to see, right?

Then, after a few minutes, I didn’t notice the people around me as much. There were parts of the painting that I hadn’t noticed at first. What’s the round thing in the lower right corner? Was it a bed? Was it another person? What’s in the other window? Was it another girl? Was that who the title referred to, and not the girl we see so easily? The colors seemed to burn with different intensities; there was a depth to this painting I hadn’t noticed at first. As I looked, I found myself caught up in a story that I didn’t have the answers to.

After about seven minutes, I decided to move on, but I felt calmer and more “in wonder” of the art I was seeing. It made me wonder if all the times I’ve been to museums I’ve been “doing it wrong.” I don’t think that art is meant to be passive; I think regardless of whether or not it’s an installation or an interactive piece, it should engage the viewer in some way. We look at art not just to behold beauty or mystery or a “pretty picture,” but to enter into a kind of communion or dialogue to let ourselves be changed.