How to view art: Be dead serious about it, but don’t expect too much

Art critic Philip Kennicott provides a stern, five step guide on how to view art, and what to expect from art museum and the artworks themselves. First, museums visitors need to take their time when looking at art. This means that they should abandon all technological distractions, avoid taking children with them, and keep their mind focused on the art instead of the time or the conversations of surrounding people. Second, viewers should find a quiet place to view art, which involves avoiding all people and often results in finding the less popular artworks in the museum. Third, since our current knowledge on art influences how we respond to it, viewers should read up on the artworks before they actually see them. Additionally, one should only go on authoritative, information based tours because not all opinions on art are valid.

Fourth, viewers need to take action with dedicating their experience of the art, and the artwork itself, to memory. Lastly, viewers need to accept that there are contradictory views on art, and all of these views are correct.

Kennicott’s article is very strict on how people should visit museums. He states that it is okay to use technology for research on art, but that technology is a also distraction that does not belong in museums. Also, he does not like gift shops because they “associate art with commerce”, yet viewers should buy books on art and need to pay in order to enter museums (which Kennicott believes to be harmful because it measure the value of a museum visit). The overall theme of this article is that art is contradictory. However, I think that Kennicott needs to specify what type of art to which this guide applies. Does Kennicott thinks those steps should be used in all museums or only museums with certain types of art?