Looking For Longer Than a Second

And some thoughts on how art trains young brains

Rufus at the exhibition When Forms Come Alive. Image my own

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the practice of looking closely at things. It started when one of my readers sent me some wonderful writing and drawings that her boys Henry (age 10) and Rufus (age 9) had done in response to an exhibition in London that I reviewed a few weeks ago. The show is called When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture, and it explores the history of contemporary static-but-dynamic sculpture.

With a brief to write what they thought about the artworks, my young friends spent over an hour deeply engrossed in looking closely at them. Henry drew the sculptures that interested him as well as describing the works in formal and sensory terms, comparing them to things he recognised in the world.

Henry’s response. Image my own

Henry’s response. Image my own

Rufus was philosophical in his response to the artworks, and thought hard about what it could all mean. He said that writing his ideas down helped him decide what he thought. Here’s some of what…