Who says that a cursory visit to an exhibition is worse than not going at all?

In art galleries, it’s common to see visitors hurrying around, snapping pictures of the artworks with their cameras. This kind of “checklist-style” viewing is often criticized, but art critic Clive Bell once pointed out: “The real experience of art begins with the intuitive perception of form.” 

Research has confirmed that when you gaze at a work that immediately catches your eye, whether it’s a great masterpiece, a sculpture, or a sketch, the amount of dopamine secreted by your brain is comparable to when you fall in love, and this physiological response doesn’t require cognitive participation. The essence of art lies in emotional resonance, not intellectual interpretation. The aesthetician Croce said that the core of art appreciation lies in intuitive experience – when a viewer is suddenly struck by the colors or emotions of a painting, this immediate emotional response is often more precious than academic analysis. This “not seeking to understand thoroughly” way of viewing an exhibition precisely retains the most genuine appeal of art. 

The true threshold of an art gallery lies in whether one can activate the radar of perception. When you let go of the obsession with “understanding”, and allow your eyes to freely wander between the canvases and spaces, those fleeting visual touches nourish your aesthetic muscles. It seems that they will all settle in your memory after several years as irreplaceable aesthetic memories without the hindrance of time.