Our new Julia Rothman edition release is terrifically timed. With International Museum Day coming up tomorrow, we’re feeling all kinds of thankful for our favorite museums, and turning our attention to Rothman’s Looking at Art —a celebration of something at once utterly simple and incredibly complex: observing art!
Looking at Art by Julia Rothman
10"x7" ($24) | 14"x10" ($60) | 20"x14" ($240) | 24"x17" ($600) | 40"x28" ($2,400)
Looking at Art is the result of a passing moment, memorialized by a twice-captured tableau of museum goers. While visiting the Whitney Museum of American Art, Julia Rothman spotted this scene from a balcony and took a photograph of the cluster of visitors moving about the art amoebically. That very day, she created the original drawing for this edition: an epitomal instance of art inspiring life inspiring art!
Looking at art (and Looking at Art) seems simple at first, but this bird’s-eye view of the crowd below enriches our sense of the process. We’re given a glimpse of the varied reactions to the work on display, the wide range of ways people interact with an art space, how they navigate the museum, how their presence affects the area. Some people stand alone, pondering art just out of frame. Some clump together, deep in discussion. Still others attempt to capture the art with cameras or phones.
Looking at Art reminds us that there is no right or wrong way to experience art. But it goes beyond that. In her edition Rothman transforms art viewers into art itself, thereby skillfully and subtly resurfacing that recurring question: what is a work of art without a viewer?
In case you haven’t heard, we’re all about the idea that art is for everyone, whether that entails building your own collection or just having the opportunity to observe art in person. And art wants to be witnessed. Many of our go-to museums have embraced the digital era—from #AskanArchivist to digitizing hundreds of thousands of pieces of art—in the effort to make art more accessible. And that’s just one of the many ways to take in art.
Rothman’s new edition could be the ticket to rekindling your museum romance, and remembering why it’s so damn soul-satisfying to look at art in the first place. And the best part? Looking at Art will always look aces on your wall.
With art for everyone,
Team 20x200
