eaves dropping

I thought it sounded like a fun idea to wander around the modern wing and eaves drop on conversations especially considering that I have experienced first hand the sort of art disasters that can and often do take place. When my parents came to visit 2 summers ago my dad looked at a Cy Twombly sculpture, said 'whutz this piece o junk?' and then flicked it (holy christ dad, you can't touch anything in gentle appreciation let alone a gesture of disgust) and then my well meaning mother nearly broke her toe when she almost tripped over one of those little post and wire barriers meant to keep idiots away from the art. Needless to say I quickly herded them over to the Impressionist paintings and then out the door.

I was expecting there to be a similar level of hushed insanity going on Thursday night but I was surprised.

I tagged along behind a group of 3 women after I overheard one deliver the oft made comment, "How old are your kids? Five? Couldn't they make something like that? Maybe better?" while they gazed at a Cy Twombly painting (poor Cy Twombly, ever the victim of the uniformed). But as I followed them around listening as they looked at two Jackson Pollock paintings, ("Jackson Pollock? Oh, I thought you said symbolic") I felt like they were being responsible gallery goers.

They sort of floated back and forth between "The Key" and "Greyed Rainbow".

They made comments regarding the difference in styles, went and looked at the dates when each painting was made, talked about the things they liked, and they read the wall text. I feel like that is the responsible way to look at art: Look at a thing. Try to gain knowledge about that thing when you do not currently possess any knowledge about it, and gather as much information as possible from what the people who have the information have deemed appropriate to provide to you. Looking and learning. Sure, one of them made one of those "hey-my-kid-could-do-that" comments but over the course of their visit (at least the portion I dropped in for) they faired far better than some who just breezed through in their polo shirts, khaki shorts, and deck shoes muttering something about "This is what they think art is...hm" while never getting close enough to the wall to find out when this shameful piece of crap was made or how it fits in line with whatever they think art is.

My motto is: if you see a piece of shit that you don't think you want to look at, at least find out what it's called, or look at whatever information you've been given about what the artist intended or what it might be about so you can make a semi informed decision on whether or not you would like to look at the piece of shit longer just in case it gets more interesting than you first thought, or whether it's the type of piece of shit that you would rather pass up because there are way more interesting pieces of shit that you still won't understand but are at least pretty, or complex, or well crafted, or more of whatever it is that you like... but at least take a second look.