Does Seeing Art in a Museum Make Us Sensual?
On a number of occasions, and there have been plenty, while giving tours at my local museum, I’ve noticed that sometimes a couple may show a lovely display of affection while I’m speaking to them about the art they’re looking at.
As a docent, I find this quite exciting because if there’s an objective I have while giving a tour, it is to invite people to dwell inside the art as deeply as possible, to help them spend more time than the average ten seconds that visitors look at art in any museum.
And so, yesterday afternoon, a middle-aged couple began to get quite affectionate upon entering the first gallery. This was prior to my long introduction of the museum and some of the architectural spaces that I like to introduce.
I often quote the Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa, who says that the world is infinite and so architecture, in many ways, grounds us into a more intimate space.
As my tour progressed, the affection between the couple continued. In fact, it only grew.
Because I’ve seen this many times now, I’ve become quite curious about it. What is prompting these warm embraces and tender kisses between two individuals on my tours? What makes a couple want to show this overt display of affection in public?
It’s interesting because there have been times that I will confess I may have been guilty of bringing on some of that tenderness. While talking about Picasso’s Vollard Suite several months ago, there was no doubt that many of the pieces contained much eroticism.
And so too was Canada’s Group of Seven painter Frederick Varley’s modest drawing, now almost a hundred years old, of a woman named Vera, who was his muse and lover. The drawing was a simple charcoal and wash, but I spent a lot of time talking about the beauty of this woman.
And maybe too, last summer, Edvard Munch’s pastel of his seated nude was another one that might have prompted some warm reaction from my guests.
Sometimes after a tour, visitors will pull me aside and thank me, and they often describe me as someone very passionate.
I’ve always liked the word passion, but more so how it is expressed in other languages, like Spanish and Italian. The word passion seems to render meaning a little stronger in these languages. Just the way the word is pronounced feels passionate, at least to my ears.
Whatever it might be, as a writer, I love to witness these types of moments. And whether the love is being unearthed by architecture, art, or words, I feel enamoured to be part of that spectacle.
Love is always welcome.