I recommend John Berger's Ways of Seeing for a much more elaborate (and accessible) way to think about art
How to Read a Painting
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: How to Read a Painting
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Museum labels are supposed to be designed to deliver the take-away point that the curator wants to make. Asking museum goers to learn how to read paintings is a poor workaround. We don't only encounter art in a museum. I think there's some value for most people to understand that you can develop some kind of framework for evaluating art. Hopefully, people don't take the questions in the article as prescriptive (or th…
> I think there's some value for most people to understand that you can develop some kind of framework for evaluating art. Or just understanding that art is very rarely exactly what it seems. The problem with this LLM-driven thing is that the person who did it seems to have as shallow an understanding of art as the LLM, or has chosen a level of terseness that belittles even the LLM's grasp of famous paintings. I am a…
Totally. I don't really agree with the framework as presented, just that you can think about art in many ways, and sometimes artists or curators don't provide a statement because it is intentionally meant to be open for some interpretation. Interpreting art can be a big task if you have no experience, so like any big task, it makes it easier to break into many small tasks until it becomes more intuitive.
Re: How to Read a Painting
#23Labels don't help? The Smithsonian begs to differ.
Re: How to Read a Painting
#24SUCH a great concept, the LLM writing ruins it.
Re: How to Read a Painting
#25Oh, this might be my opportunity to tell HN about one of my nerdy recent hobbies, one that would terrify professionals! In fact one that professionals say is impossible for non professionals (which might be what attracted me to it). I restore paintings as a hobby! It is not easy to get into. Watch Julian Baumgartner on YouTube. He carefully never tells you what glue, resin or solvent he is using. The appreciation thi…
How do you do this as a hobby? I mean do you buy paintings you think need restoration from flea markets and restore them for fun? Do you have a collector friend who asks you to help with their collection? Something else?
I've done some art handling (transporting from collectors to galleries). One collector asked me if her painting could be touched up a bit. We didn't provide that kind of service (^_^')
Re: How to Read a Painting
#26Museum labels are supposed to be designed to deliver the take-away point that the curator wants to make. Asking museum goers to learn how to read paintings is a poor workaround. The classic guide to writing interpretive exhibit labels is Beverly Serrell's book [1]. TFA has very little content and a terrible LLM stench. I work in this field, so I was attracted to the clickbait title. My advice is not to read TFA, just…
I've rarely felt labels helpful, and a label can't fit all the information needed for general study of paintings.
Re: How to Read a Painting
#27This would be an interesting project if it was written intentionally by a human. As it is, the generated prose telling you how to appreciate art is ghoulish.
Flag AI slop.
"The eight questions" but they aren't questions
Re: How to Read a Painting
#28Oh, this might be my opportunity to tell HN about one of my nerdy recent hobbies, one that would terrify professionals! In fact one that professionals say is impossible for non professionals (which might be what attracted me to it). I restore paintings as a hobby! It is not easy to get into. Watch Julian Baumgartner on YouTube. He carefully never tells you what glue, resin or solvent he is using. The appreciation thi…
How do you do this as a hobby? I mean do you buy paintings you think need restoration from flea markets and restore them for fun? Do you have a collector friend who asks you to help with their collection? Something else? I've done some art handling (transporting from collectors to galleries). One collector asked me if her painting could be touched up a bit. We didn't provide that kind of service (^_^')
Yeah I buy scrap paintings! It takes a long time, and there are a few in process at a time, so I don't need to source many. I'll buy almost anything that is an original oil painting. Most cost £5-10 and are semi-pro level, with horrible yellow varnish on them, making them look rubbish. Cleaned up they can be pretty things. I have a pair of what looked like Scottish landscapes, but researching the framers stamp they turned out to be Canadian, and in a charity shop in the UK! What a thrill. £25 is my highest price to date, which the seller wanted for the old gilded frame. I got the decent quality late Victorian/ early Edwardian en plein air landscape in the frame for nothing! It was so dirty you could barely see it. Looks very different with the filth and old varnish removed.
They end up on my wall. I figured that I would rather have originals that were not quite to my taste than prints of Pre-Raphaelite masters that are a shadow of the real thing. I still have plenty of wall space. When I run out of room I'll move some on. I can scarcely lose out financially! I plan to get in with some dealers for their junk later on.
Learning to remove varnish is a fun thing. It would be very easy to ruin the painting, but fingers crossed it has not happened yet! Each painting is a whole new challenge, with different varnishes and paints.
My next victim has some tiny holes that need patching, which will be a whole new avenue! A never ending hobby
Re: How to Read a Painting
#29Oh, this might be my opportunity to tell HN about one of my nerdy recent hobbies, one that would terrify professionals! In fact one that professionals say is impossible for non professionals (which might be what attracted me to it). I restore paintings as a hobby! It is not easy to get into. Watch Julian Baumgartner on YouTube. He carefully never tells you what glue, resin or solvent he is using. The appreciation thi…
I was not that bothered that this whole post was flagged until I saw this comment.
What a fabulous eccentric hobby to develop. I don't know you but I am fully happy for you that you've found this for yourself :-)
FWIW my own eccentric hobby is that I've decided to make my own art lenses for my cameras — simple lenses (meniscus lenses or doublets) in basic barrels that I 3D print with the right specifications to focus properly. One of the rabbit holes it sent me down is how the earliest lens designers figured out where the aperture goes — including a chap who designed a lens for work in a camera obscura, before photography. You know you have a niche hobby when you are reading academic research.
Re: How to Read a Painting
#30Oh, this might be my opportunity to tell HN about one of my nerdy recent hobbies, one that would terrify professionals! In fact one that professionals say is impossible for non professionals (which might be what attracted me to it). I restore paintings as a hobby! It is not easy to get into. Watch Julian Baumgartner on YouTube. He carefully never tells you what glue, resin or solvent he is using. The appreciation thi…
I was not that bothered that this whole post was flagged until I saw this comment. What a fabulous eccentric hobby to develop. I don't know you but I am fully happy for you that you've found this for yourself :-) FWIW my own eccentric hobby is that I've decided to make my own art lenses for my cameras — simple lenses (meniscus lenses or doublets) in basic barrels that I 3D print with the right specifications to focus…
That is an awesome hobby, thanks for sharing. Can you source good enough lenses for the job? At least you know that you have a lens no one else has