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Wednesday, December 6. 2023

Bird Dog's One Hour Rule for artsy things


It's taken decades for me to realize my time limits on absorbing/processing/tolerating certain things. In this case, I mean artsy things like museum shows, dance performances, music performances, theater, and the like. After an hour, my brain needs a break. Maybe it's a flaw and I have my share.


Yeah, I get a kick out of all such things - including architecture. 


OK, last weekend we went to the Picasso show at the MOMA. Wonderful. An easy and interesting one hour. This weekend in NY we checked out the Met Museum's Manet and Degas show on Saturday. Too much, too many masterpieces I've seen in books, and it would have taken 2 hours to get through it with good attention and my natural interest. Yes, it's a very popular show.


And yesterday a 2+ hour Baroque concert at Lincoln Center (Alice Tully Hall).  Mind you, Mrs. BD is far more advanced in music and dance than I am, but by intermission she seemed to be fading due to music overdose. (Opera and dance never have that effect on her.)


Here's my point of view: Re visual arts, these were made to decorate churches or, in recent centuries, wealthy homes. You checked out one or two at a time. Nice pictures, but not lined up in museums for the masses. Fun. Re music, it's different because there's all sorts. Pop music with lots of rhythm and repetition is easy but more ambitious music - masses, or symphonies, or long concertos - were not mostly written for 2+-hour performances (except opera). However best in world The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is, after a while you get music-museum brain. Or I do.


Another thing that bugs me about museum art and what I call "museum performances": the reverential attitude. Sure, cool things are precious but if you feel you can't cough it is silliness. Things are made mainly for entertainment and sales. Much as I admire, envy, and respect musicians and musical composers, they would let me cough or make a snarky comment to my wife. It's not church.


I liked this casual painting in the Manet/Degas show: Manet's painting of the Monet family on vacation. The kid looks bored. I do have a spot in my house for that pretty picture, but it's not for sale: 




Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 17:28 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Zachriel: After an hour, my brain needs a break. Maybe it's a flaw and I have my share.

It’s hardly a flaw. The mind needs time to process novel or complex or moving experiences. It means the art and your mind are working.

(As a side note, when viewing a painting, be sure to look for its three-dimensional qualities, which are not seen in photographic images.)
#1 Zachriel on 2023-12-06 18:10 (Reply)
Wise words BD! I love the visual arts, but I too can only take so much. And, if it's boring or too modern or too full of itself, I'm looking for the exit. My exception was seeing the Impressionists in St. Petersburg back in the early 90's, when the Rooskies decided to show off all the stuff they carted off from Germany at the end of WW II. It was stunning and my travel companions had to pull me away after 3+ hours. Since then, about the hour max seems about right.
#2 Nat Brooks on 2023-12-06 20:33 (Reply)
Well then you can imagine my imagine my experience visiting Rome and The Vatican. It wasn't like we could hit a museum for an hour and then stop back again next month. I remember wandering down the long museum space before getting to the Sistine Chapel. I take that back, I DON'T remember it because it became one long blur.

I'm with ya, BD.
#3 Phloda on 2023-12-07 08:50 (Reply)
Traveling in Scandinavia last summer I was deposited by my son at the Munch museum for an entire day while he buzzed around studying Oslo's transportation systems. Too much Munch! It is a splendid museum, and I felt like a Philistine for not being more worshipful. I prefer Munch's early work which is nothing like his blockbuster, "The Scream." Wonderful small museums are the way to have a fully engaged experience. I recommend the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA, for instance. Therein lies a magnificent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings of great note and quality, and fully viewed in an hour.
#4 Missy on 2023-12-07 09:06 (Reply)
In 1989, a friend and I traveled 370 miles to Dallas to see the Metropolitan Opera on tour. We saw four operas in three days, and I didn't have a normal dream for the next year!

Oh but it was glorious! That included a Wagner opera that lasted (as I recall) for five hours! Or maybe it just seemed like five hours. I was in the nose-bleed seats, but I could hear Placido Domingo, Renatta Scotto, Marilyn Horne, and the magnificent Met chorus (who, presumably, had to learn all four operas).
#5 HH on 2023-12-07 15:15 (Reply)
My wife dragged me into the Prado and I discovered that I loved art.

In 2 hour doses, max, punctuated by 2 beers, 2 glasses of wine and/or 2 cups of coffee, plus lunch, all plus 1 hour sitting or walking about staring into space.

The Hermitage in Amsterdam is the best because it has the great art and the best food, coffee and wine of them all. The Rijksmuseum is a close second. Beautiful cafe.

Most of the rest kick you out for your respite. The Louvre in Paris has awful food.Yuck.
#6 Fred Z on 2023-12-28 23:32 (Reply)

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