Essential media about the arts

I am standing in front of a large painting by Willem de Kooning. It is the centrepiece of the third gallery at the Museum of Modern Art’s spectacular retrospective of the painter’s work (until 9 January). The title of the painting is Excavation, and it was completed in 1950. It has been loaned to the MoMA show by the Art Institute of Chicago, which is where it normally hangs. MoMA has a good microsite about the artist and the exhibition. I have never encountered the actual painting although I have seen numerous reproductions of it. I look at the canvas – and I start to ask questions. Without too much effort, I soon have 101 questions…

Willem de Kooning, American, born Netherlands, 1904–1997, Excavation, 1950; oil on canvas, 205.7 x 254.6 cm (81 x 100 1/4 in.), unframed; © 2008 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

These are the 101 questions that I think about as I look:

• How should I look at this painting?

• How long should I look at it?

• Should I be standing or sitting when I look?

• Should I look at it in a concentrated way, or return to it several times for shorter encounters?

• Should there be other people in my field of vision?

• Would I like to see it without other people around?

• How far should I stand from it?

• Should I move my head as I look?

• Should I walk around as I look?

• How would it change the way I look if I could turn the painting upside down?

• How should I prepare for looking at this painting?

• What might help me look?

• Should I read the wall label?

• Should I read the catalogue entry?

• Can I remember anything I’ve read about this painting?

• Should I listen to the audioguide?

• Should I try to listen to the other people in the gallery who are talking about the painting?

• What should I be thinking about?

• Should I concentrate on the shapes?

• On the colours?

• Should I be trying to see familiar shapes and objects?

• Do I like parts of this painting more than I like other parts?

• What other paintings does this one remind me of?

• What films does it suggest?

• What music?

• Should I try to smell the painting?

• What would the painting taste like?

• What do I feel standing here?

• Am I moved by the painting?

• Am I puzzled by the painting?

• How much can I remember if I close my eyes in front of the painting?

• Should I worry about blocking the view of other people?

• Should I worry about what they’re thinking?

• Is their way of looking at the painting better than mine?

• Would I like to own the painting?

• Where would I hang it?

• If I didn’t know the title, what might I call the painting?

• Is looking at the painting changing me?

• Is it changing the way I look at paintings?

• How does it change the way I look at the world?

• Do I like this painting?

• How would I know if I like it?

• Do I like it more than other paintings in the exhibition?

• Do I like other paintings more than it?

• How would I know if I like other paintings in the exhibition more than this one?

• Or is this the best painting in the exhibition?

• Who would know if this is the best painting in the exhibition?

• How would they tell me that this is the best painting in the exhibition?

• Would I believe them?

• If I go to look at other paintings in the exhibition, will this change the way I look at this painting afterwards?

• Will looking at this painting change the way I look at the other paintings in the exhibition?

• Do I want to take a photograph of the painting, even though photography is prohibited?

• How do I feel seeing someone take a surreptitious photograph and not be told off?

• Would taking a photograph change the way I look at the painting?

• Do I want to buy a postcard of the painting?

• And will I be disappointed when I discover that I can’t buy a postcard?

• Would the painting look different if I came back another day?

• Or if I saw it in a different gallery?

• Would it be a different painting in another gallery?

• If I look at this painting for a long time will I get better at looking at it?

• Will this change the way I look at the painting?

• How might I get better at looking at this painting?

• Do I feel good looking at this painting?

• Do I feel good looking at this painting longer than anyone else while I’m looking at it?

• How do all these other people look at this painting?

• Can I ever know something of how they look?

• Would it change the way I look at this painting if I came to see it with a friend?

• What would I say to someone if they asked me about the painting?

• Why might I talk to someone about the painting?

• Would I like to talk to de Kooning about this painting?

• Could he help me look at this painting?

• Could anyone help me look at this painting?

• Would I look at the painting differently if I knew more about de Kooning when he was painting it?

• Would I look at the painting in a different way if I had not been irritated by the coat-check line a half-hour ago?

• What do I think the painting is worth?

• Would I like to look at this painting on a screen?

• Would I like to film the painting?

• How would I film the painting?

• Why would I film the painting?

• How would that change the way I look at this painting?

• Would I like to damage the painting?

• How would I feel if someone attacked the painting while I was looking at it?

• Does it make any sense to think of the painting looking at me?

• If the painting could talk to me, what might it say?

• If I think about the painting talking to me, can madness be very far behind?

• Why have I chosen this painting to ask questions of?

• Why am I looking at the painting?

• Is looking at the painting making me a better person?

• Could it conceivably make me a better person?

• Will I ever see this painting again?

• What will I remember of this painting tomorrow?

• Should I ask questions about how I should look at the painting?

• Should I post a blog about my questions?