Museums and the Lost Art of ‘Slow Looking’

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.05.09 | 2:41 PM ET

Photo by sergeymk via Flickr (Creative Commons)

In the New York Times this week, Michael Kimmelman watched tourists power-walking through the Louvre, and lamented the lost days of “slow looking” at museums and galleries. I enjoyed the article, and I can certainly relate—my first visit to Notre Dame, in Paris, was largely spoiled by a businessman who dashed up and down the aisles holding a camcorder over his head while shouting into a cellphone—but at the same time, if the faster-moving visitors aren’t actively disrupting the slowpokes, I don’t have much energy to condemn them.

After all, as Kimmelman himself says, there is “no single, correct way to look at any work of art, save for with an open mind and patience.” I think he had it right without the qualifiers.


Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for Museums and the Lost Art of ‘Slow Looking’

Sophia 08.08.09 | 10:34 AM ET

I really like this essay.

I might look like a speed-viewer in museums, but my MO in really big museums like the Met is to walk through galleries and wait for an artwork to call me—then I take my time looking at that before continuing my stroll. And I recognize when I’ve reached my own saturation point and end the visit there.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.