Rembrandts of Things Past

I remember the museums of my youth. They were always filled with rapt people and a contemplative silence. A silence so intense, in fact, that once I avoided sitting down on a couch in the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) to avoid the noise the cushion would make.

But I went to the Rembrandt show at the MFA one recent Friday afternoon—and while the awed people were there, the silence was missing.

I was barely through the door when one patron noted, loudly and to no one in particular, “Rembrandt went bankrupt! That’s too bad.” I quickly moved to a self-portrait, where an old man stridently lectured his wife on the finer points of the painting. This was just the beginning.

Throughout my visit, cellphones rang, laughter echoed and eight-year-olds literally bounced off the walls. A baby crying is par for the course, but Friday’s baby was particularly recalcitrant, and traveled in an incredibly squeaky stroller. Above all else, people were talking. Shamelessly and openly they talked, they discussed, they delivered discourses. It was no cacophony, but it seemed strange. On a Saturday, with attendance tripled or quadrupled, the noise wouldn’t have been so bizarre—but on a Friday? Maybe, I thought, it was just an unfortunate fluke.

I went to a security guard and asked him (in a whisper, of course) how the day’s noise level compared to the average. He thought for about three seconds before answering. “Quieter. Yeah, it’s usually much louder than this.”

This is a serious problem. America’s love affair with art has rekindled lately, just in time for our generation to appreciate a flowering of stunning temporary collections. But there are ominous signs. High-profile shows may have an addictive effect on museums, as they come to rely on heavy marketing and hype to lure ever larger numbers of Americans. And commercialization has results besides elevated attendance—how many more over-promoted, “once-in-a-lifetime” art exhibits can there be before museums resort to “Michelangelo vs. Raphael: The Final Smackdown” to boost interest?

In the end, though, noise in museums is about more than the dumbing-down of high-art audiences. It’s a question of respect for other visitors. Just because your art experience is improved by making a few calls on your cellphone, chatting with your friends, discussing art very loudly or listening to an audiotape at the maximum volume doesn’t mean that you should so improve it. This behavior is necessarily disturbing to everyone else in the room. Some people are trying to look at the art closely and exhaustively, but even for those of us who aren’t seriously into art the noise is always distracting. Everyone should quiet down and enjoy the pictures

—Joseph T. Scarry is an editorial comper.