10 Quotes About Learning to Really Look at Art

In short: Ten collectors, an art advisor, and painters and writers on the one thing that never seems to shortcut: training your own eye. Every voice below lands on the same point from a different direction -- looking at a painting well is a skill built over time, not a talent you either have or don't. Spend real time with a piece before you decide what it's worth to you.

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Diana Bowes: "You really have to see the work"

Board chair of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Diana Bowes told Artnet she didn't start collecting seriously until her mid-40s -- and considers that an advantage. "First I spent a lot of time looking," she said. "Even now, if you see something on Instagram, you can make such big mistakes buying things online. You really have to see the work!" A screen shortens the encounter; standing in front of a painting is what actually trains the eye.

Mana Jalalian: time in galleries "trained my eye"

Dubai-based collector and interior designer Mana Jalalian built her collection of Iranian artists over nearly two decades. "What really shaped me was spending time in galleries and museums, seeing a wide range of art in person," she told Artnet. "Over time, that experience trained my eye and deepened my understanding." She's collected through artists directly, through galleries, and at auction -- "each path has something to offer" -- but the eye came first, from the looking.

Elie Khouri: "train, train, train your eye"

Chairman of Omnicom Media Group and a member of Tate's Middle East and North Africa acquisitions committee, Elie Khouri gives blunt advice to new collectors: "Before you jump into buying, train your eye. Go to galleries and museums for years and try to assess what's good and bad. It takes time." His rule against rushing applies just as much to falling in love with a piece as to buying one -- "there's always a better work, or something you can buy later."

Nancy Lerner and David Frej: "look at a lot... be patient"

Chicago collectors of over 35 years, Nancy Lerner and David Frej keep a short list of standing advice for anyone starting out: "Look at A LOT, including artists and work that others have overlooked... Be patient." They warn against chasing a "hot" artist validated only by rising auction results -- the eye they trust is the one built from volume and time, not headlines.

Astrid Hill Lloyd: "ask questions about works and artists"

A New York art advisor and Parrish Art Museum trustee, Astrid Hill Lloyd tells new collectors that training an eye is inseparable from being curious out loud: "Do studio visits, visit galleries both in New York and elsewhere, go to art fairs both big and small... and go to museum shows. Most importantly, ask questions about works and artists." Becoming a collector, she says, "takes time and research" -- you build the network and the taste at the same time.

A fact worth keeping: none of the five collectors above describe an instant eye. Every one of them names time -- years of galleries, museum visits, studio time, deliberate slowness -- as the actual mechanism. There isn't a shortcut being withheld from beginners; there's just the looking itself.

John Berger: "seeing comes before words"

Art critic John Berger opened Ways of Seeing (1972) with the line: "Seeing comes before words." The point wasn't poetic decoration -- it was a claim about order of operations. You register a painting with your eyes before you have language for it, which is exactly why standing in front of the real thing changes what you notice.

Paul Cezanne: the eye must "become one with" what it sees

In his correspondence, later widely cited in art-history texts, Paul Cezanne described the discipline behind his own looking: "The eye must absorb nature, must become one with it through the medium of vision." For a painter who spent years returning to the same mountain, the instruction reads as a method, not a metaphor.

Leonardo da Vinci: the eye as "the window of the soul"

From Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks: "The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the understanding may most fully appreciate the infinite works of nature." Five centuries before Instagram made looking instant and disposable, da Vinci was already arguing that real understanding runs through sustained looking, not a glance.

Marcel Proust: "new eyes," not new landscapes

From In Search of Lost Time: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Applied to collecting, the line reframes the whole search. The rarer, harder-won thing isn't finding more art to look at -- it's developing the capacity to actually see the art already in front of you.

John Ruskin: "to see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion"

English critic John Ruskin made the strongest claim of anyone on this list, in Modern Painters (1856): "The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way... To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, -- all in one." Ruskin ranked plain, clear seeing above cleverness. It's a useful corrective for anyone who assumes they need art-history vocabulary before their own eye counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need formal training to develop an eye for art?
No. Every collector above points to time spent looking -- galleries, museums, studio visits -- not credentials. An eye is built through repetition, not a class.

How long should I spend looking at a painting?
Longer than a glance. Diana Bowes' point about Instagram applies directly: online, you see an image; in person, you see the work -- texture, scale, and how the color actually behaves in the room's light.

Is it too late to start training my eye as an adult?
Diana Bowes didn't start collecting seriously until her mid-40s and considers the delay an advantage -- she'd already spent years looking first.

What's the fastest way to start training my eye?
Go see real, original work in person as often as you can -- galleries, studios, museum shows -- and ask questions when you're there, per Astrid Hill Lloyd's advice above.

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Sources: Diana Bowes, Mana Jalalian, Elie Khouri, Nancy Lerner and David Frej, and Astrid Hill Lloyd quoted in Brian Boucher, "Ask Questions, Train Your Eye, and Be Patient: 7 Art Collectors Reveal Key Advice," Artnet News (Jul 16, 2025). Historical quotes: John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Penguin, 1972); Paul Cezanne, correspondence, widely cited in art-history texts; Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks; Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time; John Ruskin, Modern Painters (1856).