I once went to a viewing of Escher's artwork. Of course I also took in the other things the gallery was running at the same time, from old favorites to artists I'd never heard of before and now enjoy like Piranesi to artists I'd never heard of before and will never hear of again.
A few things really stuck out. At one point, I was sitting on a bench with an elderly couple each twice my age to one side and a young mother with a small child to the other. We were all enjoying the same thing. (Admittedly, it was "What's Opera, Doc?" as part of the exhibit on the art of Termite Terrace, but it's something I'd not experienced before or since, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with such different people to enjoy a brief matinee before continuing our respective walks.)
But anyway, the Escher exhibit: Not only did I see stuff of his that doesn't get much play - like The Drowned Cathedral -but I had quite the shock. I was standing close enough to Circle Limit IV to fog the glass with a good exhale. I'd seen JPGs before so I knew the piece, but both the size of it (it's bigger than you likely think - an inverse Mona Lisa) and the fine detail surprised me. For instance, Escher drew white eye-dots on many of the smaller demons along the circumference. Dozens and dozens, each so small that in that JPG they're little more than white noise. And they all have eyes. It was an experience I will remember for quite some time.
In summary: Get the fuck off the sofa and go live a bit.
The Mona Lisa is very tiny indeed. When I was touring the Louvre (gosh that makes me sound posh) I went in through the crowd to look at it, my little 3ds tour guide bleating away, and then I turned around, and the entire back wall of the room was taken up with a singular gigantic painting, ~15ft wide, that looks amazing. The Wedding At Cannae, I believe it is called.
And not one person was looking at it when I went, so obsessed were they at getting selfies by the Mona Lisa.
I found someone putting video footage up of simply entering to look at the Mona Lisa, then turning around. Doesn't quite capture the feeling of actually being there, but it gets a glimpse of it, just the SCALE of the painting after you're whelmed with the Mona Lisa's true presence.
You miss that "natural discovery" type feeling when it's all digital.
I had a similar experience at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida (their motto: Get Surreal!). I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I won't say too much about the painting. I'll say that there's one that uses an optical illusion to transform the painting. The surprise of viewing the painting from two different positions and seeing two different things is something you can't get from a picture online.
I once went to a viewing of Escher's artwork. Of course I also took in the other things the gallery was running at the same time, from old favorites to artists I'd never heard of before and now enjoy like Piranesi to artists I'd never heard of before and will never hear of again.
A few things really stuck out. At one point, I was sitting on a bench with an elderly couple each twice my age to one side and a young mother with a small child to the other. We were all enjoying the same thing. (Admittedly, it was "What's Opera, Doc?" as part of the exhibit on the art of Termite Terrace, but it's something I'd not experienced before or since, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with such different people to enjoy a brief matinee before continuing our respective walks.)
But anyway, the Escher exhibit: Not only did I see stuff of his that doesn't get much play - like The Drowned Cathedral -but I had quite the shock. I was standing close enough to Circle Limit IV to fog the glass with a good exhale. I'd seen JPGs before so I knew the piece, but both the size of it (it's bigger than you likely think - an inverse Mona Lisa) and the fine detail surprised me. For instance, Escher drew white eye-dots on many of the smaller demons along the circumference. Dozens and dozens, each so small that in that JPG they're little more than white noise. And they all have eyes. It was an experience I will remember for quite some time.
In summary: Get the fuck off the sofa and go live a bit.
The Mona Lisa is very tiny indeed. When I was touring the Louvre (gosh that makes me sound posh) I went in through the crowd to look at it, my little 3ds tour guide bleating away, and then I turned around, and the entire back wall of the room was taken up with a singular gigantic painting, ~15ft wide, that looks amazing. The Wedding At Cannae, I believe it is called.
And not one person was looking at it when I went, so obsessed were they at getting selfies by the Mona Lisa.
I found someone putting video footage up of simply entering to look at the Mona Lisa, then turning around. Doesn't quite capture the feeling of actually being there, but it gets a glimpse of it, just the SCALE of the painting after you're whelmed with the Mona Lisa's true presence.
You miss that "natural discovery" type feeling when it's all digital.
I've never seen that huge painting before, my word! Thank you for the link.
Right? I haven't had the opportunity to go to that many galleries but seeing a work in person is nothing like just seeing it in a book or on the web
I had a similar experience at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida (their motto: Get Surreal!). I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I won't say too much about the painting. I'll say that there's one that uses an optical illusion to transform the painting. The surprise of viewing the painting from two different positions and seeing two different things is something you can't get from a picture online.