Five things I learned at the museum

You’ve just got to see art in person.

I wasn’t going to tell my Toulouse-Lautrec story, because I was going to focus on my recent insights, but what the heck, I’m telling my Toulouse-Lautrec story. Back in the day, by which I mean the mid-90s, I was working for an engineering firm, which sent me to Chicago for a conference. I had one afternoon to myself–just a few hours–and I escape the conference hotel for the Art Institute of Chicago.

I was bebopping along, when I walked into a gallery was struck to stone by a painting–this one:

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "At the Moulin Rouge," ca. 1892/95

Now, I had studied this painting in college. I remembered it well. I remember the discussion of the setting, the people, the overall vibe. And I remember thinking that this was the ugliest painting it had been my misfortune to study. Just look at that woman with the green face. The professor told us how the green light was cast by the gas lamps used in theaters at the time, and I dutifully noted it down, but the work did nothing for me. In fact, it actively repulsed me.

Even now, looking at it on the screen, I feel . . . bleh.

Oh, but that’s not the reality of this painting. This painting has nothing to do with reproductions. In person, in real life with with real light and real color, this painting is . . . transfixing.

That woman’s face in garish green? That is exactly what her face should look it. What is wrong in reproduction is utterly and completely right in reality. You can almost smell the alcohol and hear the dance music. It is a remarkable painting.

And I would never have known that if I hadn’t seen it in the flesh.

Most revelations aren’t as stark as my Toulouse-Lautrec moment. But nevertheless, every time I see paintings and sculptures in person, I see things that I never noticed in reproductions. And here are some things I never would have known without my trips to the Met and MoMA last weekend.

1. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is super big and super bright.

I’ve written here about Les Demoiselles before. It’s a transformational work in the life of Picasso and the history of art. But I had never seen it in person before. Two things immediately struck me.

First, it’s HUGE.

Brauner? Don’t know a thing about him. I was captivated by this painting. I hung out in front of it for a long, long time. The color is much brighter and more pure in person, and it combines totemic power with what I can only call whimsical charm.

I learned more, of course. I had a sort of moment in front of Picasso’s La Coiffure where I simply could not put together in my head how he painted a skirt of a woman with how that skirt looked. That combination of lines and colors should not have added up to a skirt, except they did. That’s why they call him a genius, I guess.

So go to a museum. It doesn’t have to be MoMA or the Met or anywhere huge. You’ll have the same sorts of revelations at any exhibition. And let me know: what have you learned at museums? What works surprised you? What was your Toulouse-Lautrec moment?