This is the fourth in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. Take a look at Howard's other blog posts on the subject: Seeing Things (1), Seeing Things (2): Art and Love, and Seeing Things (3): Seeing in the Dark.
What is beauty?
Don't worry, I'm not going to try and answer that now. It's a beautiful summer day, and I'm walking through American Art looking at art, and watching people as they look at art, and trying to hear a little bit about what they say to each other about what they're seeing.
To me, somehow it all comes down to beauty--the colors the painter chooses to use, as well as his or her stroke and touch. Does similar beauty exist in the video artist's screen or the sculptor's compliant metal? Beauty seems to be everywhere, from the quiet white notes of a Sam Francis painting to the operatic, sweeping compositions of Albert Bierstadt.
I also find beauty in the way people look at the art, and especially when they look at each other right after that. With or without words, art brings us to different conversations and different ways of seeing things.
