One goal of this newsletter is to teach you how to look at art and get you more confident doing it.
Let’s try something new!
Rather than just telling you about the work, I’ll guide you to look at it yourself (and then we’ll compare notes).
Over the week, step-by-step, we’re going to unravel what the painting is about. This will help you enjoy this work more and practice for when you see art in person.
Here’s Conspirators by Aaron Gilbert, which I saw at a gallery in SoHo.
It was made in 2020 and is oil on canvas (a fancy way of saying it’s a painting).
Step One— Step back and see what you notice
Before we read any background, we just look. Notice any feelings of self doubt or fear of thinking the wrong thing, and see what in the work draws your attention.
You can’t be wrong just by looking! Anything you observe is great.
Take a minute to try this and then join me to share what we saw.
What I noticed
I noticed they both have face masks, so I’m thinking this work took place during the pandemic.
I notice the heaps of boxes in the background, and the Amazon logo on some of the boxes.
I notice the repeated yellow in their vests and the outline of the boxes behind them.
I enjoy the interesting way the transparency of the gloves is painted and see they’re wearing one and carrying one extra each.
There are also transparent packing bubbles painted similarly behind them. Did you see them?
I notice the guy on the left has bags under his eyes.
I notice the guy on the right is staring at the other guy.
Email me back and let me know what you’ve noticed. Nothing is too small! I’ll feature some of the responses in the next newsletter.
What’s next?
Tomorrow we’ll pay attention to how the work makes us feel. We’ll use what we noticed today to figure out how the artist is making us feel that way.
By the end of the week, we’ll understand the context of the work and have our own interpretation of the painting.
We’ll also have a greater appreciation for the act of looking closely at one piece of art.
See you soon!