Why Seeing Art in Person Still Matters
We see more art today than at any other point in history. Every day, paintings and images pass across our phones and computer screens in an almost endless stream.
And yet, for me, nothing quite replaces standing in front of an original painting.
A screen can show you the composition and the colours, but it rarely conveys the physical presence of a work. You don’t see the thickness of the paint, the marks left by the brush, the surface of the canvas or the subtle changes in colour as you move around it. Even the scale can be surprisingly difficult to judge online.
Running a gallery has made me particularly aware of this. Someone will occasionally come through the door having seen a painting on our website, only to say, “It’s completely different in the flesh.”
Usually, they mean it as a compliment.
There’s also something rather nice about the fact that paintings demand a little more of our attention. Most things on a screen are looked at for a few seconds before we move on. A painting can stop you.
You might notice the image first, then a particular colour, a passage of paint or a small detail that you hadn’t initially seen. Sometimes a painting you barely notice on first entering a room becomes the one you keep returning to.
That’s one of the pleasures of having a gallery. I get to watch people respond to art every day, and there is no predictable formula for what somebody will connect with. Two people can stand in front of the same painting and have completely different reactions to it.
I think that’s also why buying art is such a personal thing.
You don’t necessarily need to understand why you like a particular painting, and you certainly don’t need someone else to tell you that you should like it. If you find yourself repeatedly looking at a work, there’s probably something in it that is speaking to you.
And once a painting lives with you, the relationship changes again. It becomes part of a room and, eventually, part of the background to your life. You see it in different light, at different times of day and in different moods.
Perhaps that’s the greatest difference between an original work of art and the thousands of images we now see online.
Most images are fleeting.
A good painting stays with you.