art appreciation

Sixteen years ago I visited the National Gallery while on an eighth grade class trip to Washington D.C. It was the best day of the trip because, after a quick tour, we would be set free to explore the Smithsonian on our own. After being guided to the portrait gallery, and learning that the building we were in housed the only Da Vinci in the western hemisphere, we were told we had to ‘look around for a while’ before leaving for other parts of the complex. My sarcastic senses started tingling and I knew the best way to spend our required ‘while’ in the gallery.

Taking meaningful strides I lead my friends to a surprisingly small portrait. I stood in a pompous lunge with my hands on my hips for several seconds, then spun around and said “I’ve seen the Da Vinci, now we can leave.” Though my theatrics were meant to make my friends laugh, they also got a rise out of the other visitors in the gallery. Disgusted glairs followed us as we snickered and found our way to Krishna Fest, which was in full swing out on the mall way.

I was reminded of my middle school antics recently while reading an article about the new book Art for Dummies. In the interview the author of the book mentioned that while in the national gallery he overheard someone say that they didn’t understand what was so great about Da Vinci. At fist I thought ‘well played art museum patron, way to convey sarcasm through ethnocentricity.’ Later it dawned on me that maybe this person really didn’t get Da Vinci and it made me wonder why they were in the gallery in the first place.

Art appreciation is a noble pursuit, but only if it is something you really love. I think that person should have left the gallery and danced with the Hari Krishna. No one need struggle with the importance of Da Vinci for it will all be revealed to us on film soon enough when Tom Hanks teams up with Nicolas Cage in "National Treasure 2: The Da Vinci Code".