Before any major deadline, you can find me in the Princeton University Art Museum, studiously avoiding work. Throughout my time here at Princeton, the Museum has generously thrown open its doors and its collections, providing me with countless hours of valuable distraction. One day I might find myself contemplating the serpentine ornament of a Chinese bronze vessel, and the next, I might lose myself daydreaming in front of an Impressionist landscape. Too often, I just find myself late for class. In the spring, I like to stroll through the Greek and Roman galleries in late afternoon, waiting for that moment when sunbeams hit marble heads and torsos to make shadows on the wall. In the winter, I prefer to sit upstairs with the contemporary art because there I can watch it snow (from the comfort of a warm leather chair).

Most of the time, though, I just stand and stare at my favorite painting—Manet’s Gypsy with a Cigarette. This has been a weekly habit of mine for more than three-and-a-half years. Often I go for just a quick glimpse before seminar. Once I embarked on an epic thirty-minute journey across the canvas, following every twist and turn of the brush like some errant explorer. I have no scholarly interest in this painting, none whatsoever. This may come as a surprise, given my affiliation with the Department of Art and Archaeology, but scholarship is not the reason for my frequent Museum visits. Rather, I go to reflect on difficult problems or to unwind after a particularly stressful seminar. It gives me an inspiring break from my thoughts and a fresh perspective on the challenges of graduate school.

The Museum is also obviously a space for serious academic inquiry. The curators, staff, and volunteers deserve our praise for making themselves and this world-class collection open and accessible to anyone who walks through the doors of McCormick Hall. As students, we are extremely privileged to have Art and Archaeology precepts and seminars held in the Museum’s galleries and study rooms. Instead of slides and Powerpoint images, students encounter actual canvas and marble, oil paint and watercolor. This is as close to “hands-on” as it comes for many of us. In my humble opinion, every undergraduate would benefit from enrolling in at least one art history course during their four years at Princeton. Do not pass up the opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant and inspiring professors around. This goes equally for engineers and architects, as well as for historians and physicists. Take a chance and try something new—you may find inspiration in unexpected places. You need not be an art historian to appreciate art.

More to the point, you need not be an art historian to look at art. So go to the Museum and get distracted. Go to the Museum and find inspiration. Better yet, go to the Museum and fall in love. To start with: find a piece in the collection that intrigues you, challenges you, or seduces you. Drop by to pay it a visit every now and then, even if only for a minute or two. Google it. The museum is open six days a week and is no more than a five-minute walk from any point on campus. Plus, thanks to the remarkable efforts of Elizabeth Lemoine, Class of 2009, the Museum now stays open until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday nights, often with free food and live music. Two words, Late Thursdays.

Looking to impress a date? What could be more romantic than sharing your favorite artwork with that special someone! Why not stop by on your walk over to the Street? What better way to prepare for a weekend of Dionysian revelry than by checking out an ancient Greek red-figure psykter to get some pointers from the guys who practically invented the frat party? Just don't forget to head upstairs to Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg's Ulysses Fleeing the Cave of Polyphemus in order to remind yourselves of what it really means to get “blind drunk.”

Be forewarned: repeated viewing of artwork in the Museum may arouse the desire to learn more about an object or the artist who made it. The point of this exercise, though, is not to encourage cramming more dates and facts into your precious heads—far from it. But if you are overcome by the desire to learn, despite all efforts to the contrary, why not learn a little about something that interests you? Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology is literally next door, and the librarians are all quite lovely folks.

Take a break. Take a walk to the Princeton University Art Museum. I promise your efforts will be richly rewarded with fruitful distraction and perhaps a little knowledge. You may even catch me in the galleries—but if you do, please don’t remind me about that deadline I’m avoiding.

D. Alexander Walthall
Graduate Student,
Department of Art and Archaeology