Did you know in two minutes and five seconds you can breeze through the paintings on the fourth and fifth floors of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art? No this is not a Guinness World Book of Records' record dying to be bested. No I didn’t actually do this and time myself. (This would be very sad as it means I have way too much time on my hands, which I don’t.) It is thanks, (I say with tongue in cheek) to a youtube.com video where you can see paintings from the 1880s to the 1970s by Picasso, Warhol, Wyeth and more.
Silly me to think the purpose of visiting any museum is to linger, enjoy, ponder, think, and learn; to soak up the ambience of the museum’s setting; to escape the Sturm and Drang of our everyday lives. To enjoy beautiful works of art.
What in the world was I thinking?
Not long after I saw this interesting (again tongue-in-cheek), if not appalling tidbit in the latest issue of Real Simple, I searched “Every Painting in the MoMa”. It’s true you can do it in 2:05. However, don’t blink while you’re watching or you’ll miss a painting or two or three! The only entertaining thing about this video is Philip Glass’ accompanying Mad Rush piano solo.
Finally, the last sentence of this tidbit, written by Sharon Tanenbaum who writes “the simple list” says, “It’s as if you’re there . . . minus the tourists and the long bathroom lines.” But you’re not there!
What is this obsession with wanting to do everything at warp speed? Are we any more cultured because we’ve seen this video? Can we even name more than five of the paintings shown or identify the artists who painted them? What is the purpose of this video!! Our lives move fast enough as it is!
Can someone please tell me what our hurry is?
Wishing you a Wednesday that takes more than 2:05 to enjoy.
Namaste
Chris
1 comment:
Something kind of strange happened yesterday. You are going to think I am an odd one when you read this, but... I was walking along a wooded path next to a lake yesterday with my camera when this dog came flying past me. I had this vision of me, moving in slow motion, turning around, crouching with my camera, to freeze a moment of time as this dog moved at high velocity. The whole thing was imagined as though time slowed right down. I have never done that before...must have been my subconscious trying to remind me to take the slow path.
I agree with you...society needs to take in a deep deep breath and slow down!
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