I make an annual or semi-annual pilgrimage to an art museum every year and there’s always at least one painting, sculpture, or object that I want. Not because it holds its value well, not because I can resell it or put it on my wall. Shit, my walls are ugly, I don’t want it on my walls. I want it in the sense that I want it to become a part of my psyche. I want to stare at it until it occupies the back of brain forever. Because that’s not possible, I suppose I’d like to own certain paintings to refresh my memory of them whenever I please. People who sketch, are in a sense doing what I wish I could do better: absorb a work of art. If people can’t do that, it may as well not be on display. I usually take photos where permitted, and while the act doesn’t fix the object in my mind as well as sketching probably would, I find that it helps me remember the artwork better. I suspect this is a big part of why I usually find so much contemporary art forgettable; I’m typically not allowed to take pictures of it.
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