Part Two: Beyond the Image
Guest Post
By Daniel Siedell

Have you ever been underwhelmed by a painting? Have you been excited to see a well-known and often reproduced painting on tour at your local art museum, your hopes built up to be utterly transformed and…nothing?

Often the painting appears tiny and timid, even vulnerable, surrounded by a crowd of people thinking the very same thing you are. Or it appears less colorful, less dynamic than it had in the glossy reproduction in the magazine or on banners that peaked your interest.

Perhaps we’re embarrassed by our response, feeling that we’re missing something that someone else (a specialist like me, for instance) has clearly seen.

This has happened to me, more times than you might imagine. Far from being a lack of knowledge or taste, it is built into the nature of a painting itself.

Our expectations of a famous painting, whether it’s Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Picasso’s Old Guitarist, or Munch’s The Scream, are built on our desire to see an image, an image we’ve seen in newspapers, magazines, television commercials, coffee mugs, T-shirts, and other merchandise. We are coming to experience the aura of a spectacle generated by the image.

We come to the museum and wait in line to see that image. And then we are disappointed. [Read more...]