Thanks for sharing your story — especially the moment with your daughter and the “treasure hunt.” It captures that quiet turning point when art stops being something distant and starts belonging to us again.
Yes! Art galleries are a great way to introduce children to the art world & encourage them to look more closely & critically. Spot the dogs. Count the horses. Draw what the children are doing. What question would you like to ask the artist? Do it as an adult 😉😍
I was on a tour in Ireland and a lady with us had a degree in art and we list a museum in Dublin and her commentary on the paintings made it so much more enjoyable.
I’ve been going to the MFA since I moved to Boston 50 years ago. Having never been to a museum as large as this, I thought I had to stop at every painting and read the placard. I am now so familiar with the museum that I now just stop and enjoy the works that speak to me. Many of them are old friends and some of them are new works by contemporary artists.
When I took my granddaughters to the MFA recently I allowed them to take me on a tour of their favorite places (their father takes them to the museum frequently). It was interesting to explore the museum through their eyes and discuss why they were fascinated by certain areas. (They are both reading Percy Jackson so they are fascinated by the Greek and Roman sculptures.) They also saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit when it was in town and are now fans.
I took my children to the museum when they were young. My daughter, I think in rebellion, now finds my interests old fashioned and only likes works by contemporary artists. Her favorite museum is MOCA. When we visit the Berkshires we always make it a point to spend a day in North Adams discussing the exhibits on display.
I’m lucky to live in an area where there are so many museums and such a variety of art and information.
Thank you for your feedback and valuable insights. If you ever return to the MFA with children or even teenagers who prefer TikTok to Baroque art, I've created a short guide to help transform the experience into a shared moment of discovery:
👏👏👏 Loved this piece, similar to my latest review of Frieze (“Between Spectacle and Substance”) 🎨 if you want to give it a read: https://substack.com/home/post/p-177494152
Hi Zoe, I've read everything, thanks for sharing. Between us, I don't understand contemporary art at all... I feel like it's a joke. I just don't get it.
Maybe a new Substack on O'Keefe and Richter's stories coming soon 👀🔜 (would be great to stay connected + please feel free to follow and/or subscribe for more)
Two of my favourite artists are Georgia O'Keefe and Gerhard Richter. O'Keefe began painting during the advent of the Armory show, when people criticised Modern Art for "Not being art" (paraphrasing Theodore Roosevelt 😂), yet she combined the modern skyscrapers that she'd observe going up around Manhattan and equate to the natural landscapes of the Southwest [although they're feminist connotations to her work, her art is much broader and those attachments are just a way to pigeonhole her].
Similarly, Gerhard Richter pioneered an entire movement where he used an ordinary house painter's tool (the "mundane") to create vast abstract works [hence his "Squeegee method"]. Modern and contemporary art proved that people no longer had to attend art school to gain an artistic education, they could find inspiration to create anywhere 🎨
As someone who once told her mother "Art is not art if it's not in a frame!" (And then my mom gave me an inflatable gold frame for my birthday) 😂 I completely understand 💯 - then at university, I took a course on Modern and Contemporary Art - once you understand the theory, the stories behind each of the works and movements & the formative, rigid concepts that the "Beaux-Arts" [1 little art history term] was trying to maintain artists conform to, you'll learn to love it/understand 🖼️💫
My mother used to make a game out of antique shopping.She would say “you find three things you really like and I will do the same and then we will compare”.This was heightened by every so often she would buy one of the things I liked to “start my collection”,it wasn’t every time but you never knew when.Many years later I sit in a house with beautiful antiques aware of the real gift she gave me.
Displaying artwork without crediting the artist is unethical and an affront to the artist and to the viewer alike. I have commented on this before. Please do not exploit artwork in this way in order to attract subscribers. Your artistic choices are interesting and I hope to be able to continue enjoying them.
People don’t like to go into museums and galleries with me. They are outside smoking cigarettes for a long time waiting for me to come out. They love what I buy, but they hate the time it takes to decide. I replace the rug in my living room often, and I counted once. I looked at 5000 rugs before I found the right one. There are art pieces and antiques that I had scoped out three years before I finally bought it.
Thanks for sharing your story — especially the moment with your daughter and the “treasure hunt.” It captures that quiet turning point when art stops being something distant and starts belonging to us again.
That “eleven seconds” insight also stayed with me. I once came across Professor James Cutting’s Masterpiece Effect study — his findings were so close to what you describe. In this study conducted in 2001, he revealed interesting patterns about how long people gaze at art in museums. I ended up writing about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/elenamostovova/p/art-in-numbers-15-seconds-to-see?r=389ywd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thank you so much for your kind feedback.
Yes! Art galleries are a great way to introduce children to the art world & encourage them to look more closely & critically. Spot the dogs. Count the horses. Draw what the children are doing. What question would you like to ask the artist? Do it as an adult 😉😍
Rhanks Sarah
I love this a lot.
Thank you Kimber
I was on a tour in Ireland and a lady with us had a degree in art and we list a museum in Dublin and her commentary on the paintings made it so much more enjoyable.
❤️
Thank you for sharing - the next time I visit a museum, I will be sure to spend more time truly observing the art and its details
Thank you, Ashley, for your kind feedback. I'm glad to know you'll be looking at artworks differently. One artwork = one story
I’ve been going to the MFA since I moved to Boston 50 years ago. Having never been to a museum as large as this, I thought I had to stop at every painting and read the placard. I am now so familiar with the museum that I now just stop and enjoy the works that speak to me. Many of them are old friends and some of them are new works by contemporary artists.
When I took my granddaughters to the MFA recently I allowed them to take me on a tour of their favorite places (their father takes them to the museum frequently). It was interesting to explore the museum through their eyes and discuss why they were fascinated by certain areas. (They are both reading Percy Jackson so they are fascinated by the Greek and Roman sculptures.) They also saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit when it was in town and are now fans.
I took my children to the museum when they were young. My daughter, I think in rebellion, now finds my interests old fashioned and only likes works by contemporary artists. Her favorite museum is MOCA. When we visit the Berkshires we always make it a point to spend a day in North Adams discussing the exhibits on display.
I’m lucky to live in an area where there are so many museums and such a variety of art and information.
Thank you for your feedback and valuable insights. If you ever return to the MFA with children or even teenagers who prefer TikTok to Baroque art, I've created a short guide to help transform the experience into a shared moment of discovery:
https://www.coolstoriesabout.art/p/guide-how-to-make-kids-love-museums
👏👏👏 Loved this piece, similar to my latest review of Frieze (“Between Spectacle and Substance”) 🎨 if you want to give it a read: https://substack.com/home/post/p-177494152
Hi Zoe, I've read everything, thanks for sharing. Between us, I don't understand contemporary art at all... I feel like it's a joke. I just don't get it.
Maybe a new Substack on O'Keefe and Richter's stories coming soon 👀🔜 (would be great to stay connected + please feel free to follow and/or subscribe for more)
Two of my favourite artists are Georgia O'Keefe and Gerhard Richter. O'Keefe began painting during the advent of the Armory show, when people criticised Modern Art for "Not being art" (paraphrasing Theodore Roosevelt 😂), yet she combined the modern skyscrapers that she'd observe going up around Manhattan and equate to the natural landscapes of the Southwest [although they're feminist connotations to her work, her art is much broader and those attachments are just a way to pigeonhole her].
Similarly, Gerhard Richter pioneered an entire movement where he used an ordinary house painter's tool (the "mundane") to create vast abstract works [hence his "Squeegee method"]. Modern and contemporary art proved that people no longer had to attend art school to gain an artistic education, they could find inspiration to create anywhere 🎨
As someone who once told her mother "Art is not art if it's not in a frame!" (And then my mom gave me an inflatable gold frame for my birthday) 😂 I completely understand 💯 - then at university, I took a course on Modern and Contemporary Art - once you understand the theory, the stories behind each of the works and movements & the formative, rigid concepts that the "Beaux-Arts" [1 little art history term] was trying to maintain artists conform to, you'll learn to love it/understand 🖼️💫
Cool guidelines to dive deep into art gallery. Awesome! 😬✨
thank you Fanny !
My mother used to make a game out of antique shopping.She would say “you find three things you really like and I will do the same and then we will compare”.This was heightened by every so often she would buy one of the things I liked to “start my collection”,it wasn’t every time but you never knew when.Many years later I sit in a house with beautiful antiques aware of the real gift she gave me.
I love it, it's great. Each object is linked to the memory of the person we love. Thank you for this anecdote.
I have a life long memory… in 1967 Paris summer sitting in the muse de paumes (?) on a bench near the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_at_the_Piano
Renoir painting of two girls at the piano.
I sat there for maybe 2 hours.
It will glow in a treasure chest in my mind forever.
You definitely picked the right profile picture for this Substack.
I wanna your IG 🙏🏼.
BS"D
Displaying artwork without crediting the artist is unethical and an affront to the artist and to the viewer alike. I have commented on this before. Please do not exploit artwork in this way in order to attract subscribers. Your artistic choices are interesting and I hope to be able to continue enjoying them.
Sincerely, Peter
People don’t like to go into museums and galleries with me. They are outside smoking cigarettes for a long time waiting for me to come out. They love what I buy, but they hate the time it takes to decide. I replace the rug in my living room often, and I counted once. I looked at 5000 rugs before I found the right one. There are art pieces and antiques that I had scoped out three years before I finally bought it.