People Behaving Appropriately in Art Museums

Showing the world how you're supposed to do it: quietly, reverentially, and with your hands behind your back, please. This is a tongue in cheek look at representations of visitors in art museums, so don't take it too seriously, OK?

[righted-museum]

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

[pbaiam]

Rabih Alameddine on Twitter

“Photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe”

[pbaiam]

Admire them all you want, they will refuse you any intimacy. As it should be. Move along now.

[fucked-harder]

Perception. #lacma #designlife (at LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

[lacma]

Morris Louis (United States, 1912-1962), Unfurled Series: Beta Ro, 1959-1960, Acrylic on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick R. Weisman

[pbaiam]

Women in Museums

An artist envisions women looking at art, each interpreting what they see in a unique way.

Look, it’s an artist looking at women looking at art. How meta!

[pbaiam]

Oh dear...

People behaving appropriately in art museums seems to be a dying art, as evidenced by this Elizabeth Hurley photo of her sitting on the Great Bed of Ware at the V & A. Obviously a case where no barrier would have stopped a determined celebrity.

And while we’re lamenting the decline of appropriate behavior, can we weep a moment for the word “selfie” which has now apparently become a synonym for any photograph with a person in it. In case this is news to you, as it was to the author of the Observer writer who reported on the incident, a “selfie” is photograph one takes of oneself. That’s why you often don’t see both of the subject’s hands, since they’re holding the camera, or the (gulp!) selfie stick. Unless Liz has really flexible, longs toes, this isn’t a selfie. 

[pbaiam]

Here’s an edge case, readers, submitted by Niall and Lucy from far-off Carolina. The backpack would normally be an immediate disqualification, but in this case it might provide a welcome counterbalance when leaning over the stand-offs, which I’ll admit are remarkably far away. Appropriate, or not?

And when you consider the Donald Judd next to it with *no* barrier around it, the situation gets even more fraught. Judd’s are world-renowned climbing structures, as evidenced in this photo from last year at the Tate Modern:

[pbaiam]

Catherine Manzanares on Instagram: “That moment when you realize you're twins with the painting you've been staring at. (📷: @steveacevedo)”

“That moment when you realize you're twins with the painting you've been staring at. (📷: @steveacevedo)”

By all means, dress like the art! It helps you blend in. You can also avoid the guards more easily.

[pbaiam]

How meta. A painting of a person behaving inappropriately at an art museum. And from that angle, what kind of image is she going to get?!

[pbaiam]

Don't get too close. He looks sketchy.

[pbaiam]

You can feel them judging you, can't you? Yes, and found wanting...

CC0 image from gratisography.com

[pbaiam]

The bench being off-axis from the work made her so uncomfortable she couldn't bear to turn around, let alone sit on the abominable thing. "I'll just wait. Things will sort themselves out."

[pbaiam]

It's best if your outfit matches the art you're coming to visit.

[pbaiam]

OK, stop! Now stand there and stare until the work fills your vision and you feel a little seasick. Then step back four paces, nod if anybody else is in the room, and move on. Mind the pile of stone...

[pbaiam]

Joint Statement from Museum Bloggers and Colleagues on Ferguson and related events

Joint Statement from Museum Bloggers and Colleagues on Ferguson and related events

In the mad bustle of Art Basel Miami Beach (more on that later, hopefully…) a group of thoughtful friends started discussing the roles of cultural institutions in the wake of police killings in Ferguson, Staten Island, and elsewhere. The following statement is a result of those conversations and hopefully the beginning of longer ones. The question of what our response should be is already…

View On WordPress

[pbaiam]

Trying to sneak up on a painting from the side. Clever. Even if it jumps off, she'll be safely out of art's way.

[pbaiam]

There's no school like "old school!" Dense, representational and unencumbered with curatorial narrative. They may not learn anything, but gosh it's pretty!