How to Visit an Art Museum

In How to Visit an Art Museum Johan Idema offers a fresh perspective on the art museum. Whether first-timer or frequent visitor, the book demonstrates the sense and nonsense of museum etiquette. It lets you tackle the challenges art poses by taking things into your own hands. Because the typical museum behavior – “Walk slowly, but keep walking”, writer Gertrude Stein suggests – is seldom the most rewarding. How to Visit an Art Museum was published by BIS Publishers in September 2014.

The only way to understand art is to go to a museum and look at it, French painter Renoir suggests. But once inside, that is easier said than done. What do you do, when the label simply reads “Untitled, 1973”? Where to look, when a painting offers you a picturesque but undisguised view of a giant vagina? And how to react, when the museum guard stares at you for far too long?

Find out how museum guards can be to your advantage. Learn the rule of thumb to distinguish good from bad art. Discover how kids offer you glimpses of the world hidden behind an artwork. How to Visit an Art Museum shows you how a little courage and creativity can make your museum visit truly worthwhile. Ultimately, a museum is what you make it.