Maybe you can use my approach; it’s a simple and useful way to sharpen your intuition. Always come to the museum or the show when it opens in the morning. That way, you have optimal energy and openness to take in new things. Start by walking all the way through the exhibition at a fairly high pace. Don’t stop during the walk, but try to notice all the artworks without thinking or judging the pieces. Then, walk back to the beginning. Now you know more about how to pace the visit, but more importantly, you have a sense of where to put your attention. And I think most people will like to know what they are getting into; we like estimated reading times on articles, and we want to know how long that video or podcast is before committing our precious time. There is always way too much to see and take in, especially at the big museums. But I’ve found that my intuition will point me to a handful or two of artworks that deserve a deeper dive. So, more often than not, I will spend 80% of the time on 5-10% of the art. The Tate has a good little piece on Slow Looking, well worth a look. The approach described works well for me; perhaps it’s something to try?

I am generally not interested in knowing the titles of the works or the artists’ intentions or life histories, etc., beforehand. This limits the ability to simply experience the work without prejudice. The most important thing is to experience the works, not sort them into little buckets of “beautiful,” “ugly,” and so on and so forth. Always having a kind of “beginner’s mind” when looking at art is extremely important to me. I know a bit about art history and artists (especially the current Danish ones), but I believe that knowledge can get in the way of having an immediate experience; it can become a case of intellectual connect-the-dots that does nothing for me.

My approach to watching movies is similar; I generally like to know as little as possible before watching. The movies I like are often a bit strange and open to interpretation, so I prefer to be as open as possible. But after watching a good movie, I will often take a dive into analyses and reviews. I will also be happy to take in a good behind-the-scenes feature (something which has sadly been a bit lost with streaming; DVDs often had all that cool bonus material. But often there is stuff to be found on YouTube). Here are some unusual movies that I like.

A few ideas for your next visit to an art museum;

– If you go together with friends or family, split up, at least for some of the time at the exhibit. Then meet up and talk about what you’ve seen; maybe revisit some artworks together. But looking at art is really not a team sport.

– Show up early. Once I went to the Louvre at opening time. Most of the guests headed straight to see you-know-who; I went straight to the furthest corner of the world’s largest museum. A whole hour passed before I met another guest; it was great.

– If you really like the art, try to see if you can go twice to the same exhibit. It can be an extra look through at the end of a one-day visit, but even better to come back at a later date. Once a year or so, I visit Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen to look at new stuff, of course, but also just to revisit some favorite paintings.

– Take lots of photos. It’s impossible to remember all the great stuff you see on an extensive visit to a museum. Today it’s super easy to do an image search later to get more info on the works. So it’s not so much for looking at the art per se, more as a visual diary for later recall and research.