Looking 101
Wednesday, Oct 12 – Dec 4, 2022Northwestern University
40 Arts Circle Dr.
Evanston, IL 60201
EXHIBITION ON VIEW
LOOKING 101
On through December 4, 2022
The average museum visitor spends less than 30 seconds looking at a work of art.
It usually takes us far less than that to draw conclusions about what we see; the human brain seems to perform this work automatically and instantaneously.
How do we slow down our looking habits to better understand the process of meaning-making?
How do our individual backgrounds and lived experiences affect how and 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. We have intentionally excluded contextual and interpretive texts from the walls of this exhibition so you can begin your visit with direct observation of the artworks. Information about each artwork and discussion prompts are available in the brochure holder and on our website. You can do this exercise on your own or in conversation with other visitors.
