The art of communication

Went to the Rita Angus exhibition yesterday (still waiting for Te Papa's excellent blog to post on it), and I was going to post on it before I noticed the Greenslade thing, but the writing for the exhibition was fairly vapid.

When I pretend to knowledgeable about art and stand in front of a pretty picture for five minutes thinking to myself I know very little about how impressionists impacted on later modernist artists, I like to get a little education from the curator who has spent a lot of time preparing said exhibition and knows exactly what I don't.

I don't particularly like reading about how the soft rolling hills and sharp mountains of the background are indicative of the spiritual, naturalist, and pacifist beliefs of the artist. Over. And over. And over again. Maybe a comment on how the nature pieces have moved toward the older impressionist movement? Or something about how the artist has played with the audience's perception of depth and why? Or perhaps her relevance in the wider world of art?

I guess that would be thinking too highly of those people who go out of their way to learn a little about the artist and their art. My bad.