How to See an Exhibition in an Hour

Trying to look at everything means remembering nothing. A short visit goes further with a plan: one walk through, then a few works seen properly.

Walk the whole show first

Spend the first ten minutes moving through every room without stopping for long. You are mapping the exhibition: how it is organised, where it starts and ends, which works pull you back.

Then choose three

Go back to three works and give each at least five minutes. Stand at different distances. Look at the edges, the surface, the frame. Time is the simplest way to see more.

Questions that help

• What did I notice first, and why?
• What is happening at the edges of the work?
• How was it made, and what traces of making can I see?
• Why might the curator have hung it here, next to these?

Read after looking

Look at the work before reading the label. The label can then answer your questions instead of replacing them. See reading wall texts and catalogues.

Leave before you are tired

Attention runs out. Stopping while you are still curious is better than finishing the last room on autopilot.