The Onion On Museum Going...And What You Should Take From It.

Take a look at this article from The Onion, making fun of an, unfortunately, common feeling...
http://www.theonion.com/articles/whole-museum-visit-spent-feeling-guilty-about-movi,29568/

I totally understand what they are saying. Even with a great deal of interest in art and a decent education in art history, I find myself breezing through certain pieces, certain sections. The people I've gone with are often the same, mostly far worse.The funniest part comes when we leave. Where I am filled with wonder and awe, they didn't get too much from it. They ask why it's such a big deal. I ask if they looked at any of the pieces...they say yes. I asked what...and they fumble for general descriptions of the most known works (much like the article's "That famous pointillist one").

And then you figure it out. Most people don't look at art when they are going through a museum, they glance at it. I'm not arguing that you need to give every piece an hour of investigation, but you don't sit through 90 seconds of a movie and decide whether it's good or not...you don't read a page of a book and judge it's entire content...and just as those examples, you shouldn't glance at a painting and expect to be rewarded with an insightful experience.

I suggest, for people who really have a problem with this, to, firstly, not worry too much about it. You aren't going to go straight from not understanding art to researching each painting at the MAM for an hour a piece.

Maybe, as a first step, try to pick out a few pieces in the room which interest you the most. Don't force yourself to look at the stuff you hate...it's just going to bore and frustrate you. You don't read everything in the library, and you don't need to look at everything in the museum if you know you're more interested in a certain style. Read the cards...look closer at the pieces...find out the simple things first like medium, title, and subject matter. Discover the pieces you like the most, and move on from there...

Art should be more like a book than a movie. Pick the ones you want to read most and don't sit and wait for it to be presented and explained...engage yourself in the narrative and discover it for yourself. Pick what you'd like to look at..and go from there...