Hello hello!
I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Today, I wanted to talk about this great article I had to read for my modern art history class called The Power of Patience.
In the article, the author, Jennifer Roberts, highlights the importance of deceleration and immersive attention. She requires her art history students to spend three hours simply looking at a piece of art before they begin writing their paper. This might sound crazy at first, but Roberts uses the example of portrait painter John Singleton Copley to support her point. Due to the long distance between Boston and London, Copley experienced frequent and excessive delays receiving feedback for his paintings. However, Roberts argues that these delays were formative, and left a large impact on him and the rest of his career. In a time when we are inundated with information, and many around us are always in a fast-paced mindset, it’s valuable to pause and look harder and deeper.
I’m talking about this article and the power of patience in my post today, because my art history assignment for this week is to go to the Davis Museum (the art museum on campus) and stare at a work of art for one hour. After, we have to write an essay analyzing the various techniques the artist used in the painting.
This weekend, I set off to do this…it was a lot harder than I had initially anticipated. I went to the Davis simply with a piece of paper and a pencil in hand, and camped out in front of a piece called Wellesley Girls, by Alice Neel. It was oddly meditative, and I soon felt the piece engulf me (it’s a massive piece of art). I started to notice things I hadn’t initially, and a narrative started to form.
I’ve yet to start writing my essay, but I know this exercise has made me look at not only art, but my also my surroundings, a bit differently. In a chaotic and busy world (especially in college), I’m realizing that lingering can be impactful.
One more thing that I wanted to mention: Oh, how I love my professors here! It has been a while since I’ve taken an art history class and written an art history paper, so I went to office hours to review with my professor. She took me to a painting in the building, and we analyzed a piece of art together – for 20 minutes. It was incredible, and she was so knowledgeable.
Moments like those are my favorite.
Shreya