Looking 101

Wednesday, Sep 18 – Dec 1, 2024

Northwestern University
40 Arts Circle Dr.
Evanston, IL 60201

Katz Gallery

Class is in session. Learn to look through art.

The average museum visitor spends fewer than thirty seconds looking at a work of art. It usually takes us far less time than that to draw conclusions about what we see; the human brain seems to perform this work automatically and instantaneously.

How does slowing down our looking habits help us understand their connections to meaning-making?

How do our individual backgrounds and experiences affect how we perceive what we see? 

We invite you to enter our teaching gallery and engage in a typical classroom activity: an exercise in close looking that can be used to analyze any work of art. Works on view are selected from The Block’s collection to relate to themes in courses across campus this term.

READ MORE