Author Archives: Phyl Terry

Slow Forest Year

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You think looking at an individual painting or sculpture for 10 minutes seems long? How about a year?

James Gorman reviews a new book, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature, in the New York Times Science Times today. It turns out the author, David Haskell, spent a year slowly watching a patch of nature.

Haskell, a scientist, “did no experiments and no research…He sat, and watched, and listened” for this yearlong meditative study.

For example, one day he spent an hour slowly observing squirrels. That simple activity helped him realize something obvious and profound. Like a Slow Art Day participant who discovers a color, texture or other seemingly hidden element, Haskell joyfully discovered that “squirrels appear to enjoy the sun, a phenomenon that occurs nowhere in the curriculum of modern biology.”

I’m getting the book today. I recommend you do the same.

– Phil Terry, Slow Art Day Founder

It Takes Multiple Visits To Be A Lady

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I liked Thomas Micchelli’s review of To Be A Lady, a new show in Manhattan, for many reasons including that he begins the article by describing something we in the Slow Art Day movement often experience: it takes a few visits to really see an exhibit.

In his opening paragraphs, he takes pains to go into detail about why the review itself is based on his second visit.

I specify my second visit because my first was preoccupied with the show’s startling scale, ambition and quality.

I also often find that the first visit to an exhibit is preoccupying. It’s hard to see the individual pieces of art.

And this is an especially important consideration with a show like this one, which aims to make visible what’s been too-much hidden from public view: the contribution and impact of many women artists.

The review is worth reading – and the show reviewed is certainly worth seeing slowly at least twice.

For more on the show, which is open until January 2013, click here.

– Phil Terry, Slow Art Day Founder

The art of looking at art – Met Director Thomas Campbell

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Metropolitan Museum of Art Director, Thomas P. Campbell, talks about the art of asking basic questions and of really looking at art.

Of interest, he refers to an Italian art professor, a passionate teacher, who reminded him that “all art was once contemporary” and implored him not to get caught up in art world jargon but rather to use his eyes, to really look, to ask basic questions and to try to *see* the art.

ARTInfo: Slow Art Day Fights Visual Grazing With a Deep Dive Into Museums

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by Kyle Chayka
Published in ARTInfo: August 17, 2012

A 2001 study showed that visitors to the Metropolitan Museum looked at individual works of art for an average of just 17 seconds at a time, a visual habit called “grazing.” Even the most iconic artworks in the world can’t seem to hold our attention: The Louvre discovered that visitors look at the Mona Lisa for just 15 seconds on average. In the age of the moving image and endlessly updated World Wide Web, works of art in more traditional media don’t get the focus they deserve. Slow Art Day, a three-year-old initiative currently ramping up for its 2013 event, is looking to change all that with an orchestrated long art-viewing session at museums around the world.

Read the full feature article on ARTInfo

Slow Art Day is today all over the world!

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Slow Art Day 2012 is today, Saturday, April 28.

Events have already occurred in China, India, and all over Australia. As I write this, Slow Art Day events are happening in Rome, Paris, London, Copenhagen and all over Europe.

Slow Art Day events are about to start in North and South America.

Have a good and slow day of looking and loving art.

– Phil

Phil Terry
Founder, Slow Art Day

P.S. If you need anything or have any questions about today’s events, get in touch via e-mail here.

Slow Art Day Video

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Watch

Created by Scribbler’s Club, hosts for Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Slow Art Day.

Berkeley, California

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Greve in Chianti, Italy

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Lisa Quinones, Slow Art Day Serbia host, opens exhibition

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Lisa Quinones, 3-time Slow Art Day host in Serbia, just opened an exhibition of her photography, “Balkan Odyssey, a Photo Exhibition by Lisa Quinones.”

The exhibition is at the Hellenic Foundation for Culture Kneza Milosa, 14, Belgrade, Serbia and will be running through February 3, 2012.

More information here: http://livinginbelgrade.com/event.php?id=58

Phil