Answers to the Friday Afternoon Challenge!

[CTyankee]

15. Wow. I read a book about people who cried in front of paintings, but not this!

I've been in museums in Europe where you can get thrown out for all kinds of things and nearly have to have a TSA search before going in. No flash and sometimes no photos at all, no bottled water, no talking (in certain areas), no magnifying glasses, no backpacks, no large overcoats. Throw all your stuff into a bin at the entrance. Bells that warn you that you are too close to a painting (Picasso's Guernica in La Reina Sofia in Madrid).

I REALLY get where your teacher was saying. Art can unhinge you (for better or for worse). People routinely break down in front of Rothkos. Look at the great works of art that have been attacked by people throwing stuff, attacking with knives and mallets, or just plain want to destroy them (think Franco who would doubtless have destroyed Guernica had not Picasso secretly smuggled it out of the country and sent it to New York, where it hung in MoMA until Franco died, when it was sent back to Spain, on Picasso's expressed wish).