‘Weird and Daunting’: 7,000 Readers Told Us How It Felt to Focus
Can you spend uninterrupted time looking at one piece of art?
Our reporter Larry Buchanan invites you to spend time staring at a single work by the surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie, guiding you through the painting and revealing how Abercrombie used her art to bring you inside her... See more
nytimesinstagram.comFor seven minutes, they silently give the work their full attention. Three things are discouraged during this period, Knauss told me. “One is what we call studium”—analysis from study. Another is interpretation, and the third is judgment. If Birds find a work offensive (or simply bad), they’re meant to put aside that response.
... See moreIn Four Thousand Weeks I explored the fascinating work of the art historian Jennifer Roberts, and carried out her exercise of looking at a single painting for three hours straight, so as to experience the truth that really seeing a painting is an undertaking that just takes the time it takes.
Simon Joliveau • Fwd: The Imperfectionist: Act Fast
Art too often becomes something to be consumed—either by Instagram feeds or analysis. By this logic, I had already “consumed” the Water Lilies . But meditation foregrounded the experiential part of viewing art. Monet’s work became not the masterpiece it’s been branded and idolized as, but a mere assemblage of pigments dancing across a canvas.... See more