Ivon Hitchins Arno No. 5
Where better to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon than at home in your PJs looking at an art book? Or perhaps if you live in London, at the Tate Britain. In a set of self-guided tour pamphlets for visitors the Tate Britain says, “Yes, it’s a museum, but it’s also like a big living room.” Pull some jeans on over your PJs and head out.
Fifteen self-guided tours called collections are based on a theme. Each have several paintings and a funny commentary .The collections are based on the visitor state of mind or circumstances – they speak for themselves:
- The I’M HUNGOVER Collection
- The FIRST DATE Collection
- The RAINY DAY Collection
- The I HAVEN’T BEEN HERE FOR AGES Collection
- The I LIKE YELLOW Collection
- The HAPPILY DEPRESSED Collection
- The I’M IN A HURRY Collection
- The ODD FACES Collection (includes a book shop employee)
- The I HAVE A BIG MEETING Collection
- The I’VE JUST SPLIT UP Collection
- The KIDS ONLY Collection
- The CALMING Collection
- And the ______________ _____________ FILL IN THE BLANK collection, in other words, make up your own tour
Why write about this, other than for a smile? Or to ask you which tour you’d take?
Well, because art museums, especially those with paid admission, need to address the visitor’s psychosis about art and their ability to appreciate it.
Here’s an example. When I walk into the Royal Ontario Museum I know I’m in a building of treasures. But why are these treasures? I don’t know why. I only know they are valuable. I feel a bit guilty I cannot appreciate what I see.
I’m more comfy with art than arrowheads and I’ve taken many people on their first visit to an art gallery. They always enjoy something about the visit (sometimes it’s just the gift shop). But they also have in common some combination of feeling guilty, stupid, embarrassed or wistful – if only they had learned more (even though they hadn’t had the chance to do so).
Sometimes they are resentful; the museum made them feel that way. No wonder. There is not always much help to appreciate the treasures inside.
For this reason, the Tate Britain’s collection brochures are worth more than the paper they are printed on. Short, full of humour and addressed to the visitor’s gallery experience, they are about the customer experience of a gallery visit. A visitor can feel satisfied with having seen and enjoyed what they saw … removing their guilt or embarrassment at being unsophisticated viewers.
In these conversations I say that art is to be enjoyed. It’s not an intellectual exercise, it’s a visual one. It’s not our fault we don’t get it … it can be fun to work out what’s being said by the artwork … but it can also be fun to call it pretentious.
P.S. – I’d take The I LIKE YELLOW Collection pamphlet and in the process discover a British painter, Ivon Hutchins, who painted the image here. Thanks Tate Britain!