Edward Winkleman wrote a post today titled: A few thoughts before our flight  on Art as Condensed Life as opposed to a elevator pitch summary that I thought was quite good and often what I have thought myself. 

In Winkleman’s post he compares appreciating the Rembrandt show currently at the Metropolitan with an African Sculpture show that is also up right now:

“…We rush to see Rembrandt’s (with “rush” being the key work here), but we don’t have to take much time to benefit from them because we’re fully prepared/equipped to appreciate them on a summary basis if our schedules don’t permit a slower appreciation of them on a condensed life basis. With work that we’d need to invest much more time to feel we “get,” though, we feel we’re at such a disadvantage that we might as well not bother….“

“…My point is that perhaps there’s plenty of great art about, but many folks are are not well suited to find it. For art to be good, it has to be rich (i.e., more than just a one liner or a one-liner that reveals something more complex than itself). Most of us would agree to that. With our hectic schedules, though, slowing down long enough to appreciate that complexity seems impossible, so we often reflexively don’t even try. That may lead inadvertently to some viewers leaning toward less complex work. Work that they get quickly and perhaps, because they’re not unaware of what’s good, project complexity onto that isn’t there. I’ll include myself in that to avoid it sounding like I’m picking on any particular artist, collector, or gallery.

The African show, being more unfamiliar to many of us, is harder for people in New York to want to spend a lot of time on (maybe, because they’re not prepared for it?) , therefore, they opt for things like Rembrandt, that are familiar to them and less demanding to appreciate.

The only thing I’d add is that Edward Winkleman didn’t come with a suggested solution.   If we accept that Art is Condensed Life how can we figure out the best way to open our selves up to it while we are so busy with all the streams of information coming in that demand or attention.

It even goes farther than this …what if we’re so busy that we don’t have enough time to live?  What if the Artist within doesen’t have a real life, to condense?  

It might seem strange that we could life so quickly that all we’re taking in is “icons” for experiences and not actually having much of an experience of life.  I guess what I mean by “life” is living an experience long enough so you can have a point a view about it.  If all we do is take in other people’s “summaries” do we have anything of our own that’s real?