EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE
Expert advice on how to view art
Spotlight is a weekly look at some of the people who are part of the Ottawa area’s arts community.
This week, Bruce Deachman talks with Valérie Mercier, who is an animator/interpreter at the National Gallery of Canada.
“I’ve been asked before if I have a favourite piece at the gallery, and it’s really hard to tell. But there are some things that come to mind and one of the pieces I particularly enjoy is Majestic, by Michel de Broin. It’s outside the gallery, on the grounds. And there are some paintings, like The Fortune Teller, by Simon Vouet, in the European galleries, that I’m particularly affectionate for — I think it’s a beautiful work and there’s an amazing narrative that you can approach with any audience.
“I was always very passionate in the arts. I remember coming here to the gallery with my cousin when I was 10 years old and looking at art. And I’ve studied art for pretty much my entire life. That’s one thing that brings me here. Another is that I was really lucky at CEGEP — I was also working at the city gallery in Gatineau, and that brought me to work with the public and with school groups and school programs.
“I’ve been here for three-anda-half years and I’ve definitely gained an enormous amount of knowledge about art. The part that really makes the job for me is interacting with the public. You have moments where, yes, of course,
people have an opinion about the work. You can create a bit of a debate. It’s interesting and they want to hear what you have to say about it. But there’s also this moment for me where you have a member of the audience — any age — and you tell them a bit about the work and start to really dig into the work and have them carefully look, and you see their face just completely lighting up and understanding or seeing something, or understanding things in a new way. This is really what I love.
“Art, for me, is a form of communication, so to simply tell the facts about an artwork is not enough. That’s what we try to do as interpreters; we try to have people interpret and build their own visual knowledge of the art, not just know fun facts. A bit more than that.
“I usually pick artworks that I have kind of sparkles in my eyes to talk about. I love these artworks and am passionate about them, so I’m hoping in a way that my energy gets transmitted. And when you see that happening, it’s great. Or just when you see them start to understand the trick that you’re telling them. I have teenagers sometimes and I tell them ‘Look at the hands in paintings. They’re
so expressive. The hands are almost a way to read the painting, and you’re going to understand the narrative by looking at those hands.’ And then I have them do it by themselves; I just direct a bit, and they figure out the story of the painting that’s 300 years old, all by themselves. So they create a connection with the past that they maybe did not imagine they would have had that day. There are those little magic moments, and that’s the fun of the job.
“There are tips and tricks to looking at art, depending on where you are in the gallery. Let’s say you are entering the contemporary gallery — then things are completely an explosion of practices. You have so many different things; it’s very diverse. If you’re not too sure how to approach an artwork, acknowledge the materials that the artist used. Often they are a statement — they could be connected to what the artist wanted to say. If an artist uses cardboard versus concrete, or metal or found objects, it doesn’t have the same meaning. That’s a good way to kind of get to know the art.
“Another thing you can do, like I said, is look at the hands. They’re like big red arrows, especially in
older artworks, historical artworks, where you have a narrative. The hands are expressive, and they’ll kind of point you to something you have to acknowledge in the painting, a symbol, and it’s a good way to start reading the narrative of the painting.
“Are there other tricks? Go with some friends to the museum, pick an artwork that you have a reaction toward. It could be ‘I don’t like this artwork at first sight.’ It could be ‘I’m very intrigued by it.’ But sit down in front of it, don’t look at the label, and just discuss the art for five minutes with your friends. Ask yourself questions. You’re probably going to get very close to the meaning of the art without looking at the label. You’ll find the answers by yourself. If it’s powerful enough, you don’t always need to look at the label.
“One more trick is to slow down. You don’t have to look at every single artwork in the museum. Pick a few, sit down, enjoy, discover it. Take more than five seconds. Take five minutes — maybe 15 minutes — in front of the artwork. I do find this helps a lot, and you’re going to fall in love with an artwork if you take the time to discover it.”