At the turn of the millennium, Amy Herman was working on Fifth Avenue as the Frick’s head of education. At the time, recent research conducted by Yale University had indicated that encouraging doctors to analyse works of art could serve to improve their diagnostic skills. Some two decades later, Herman’s “The Art of Perception” seminar is used by doctors, FBI officers and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies alike.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Herman notes that the importance of analysing pieces is “about effectively communicating what you see.” She cites the example of Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid, painted in the latter half of his artistic career. Students were tasked with considering the painting for two minutes and recounting what they saw, a cross between Art History 101 and the Generation Game.
Herman had reasonable success in the early years of her course, though it was the uptake by the NYPD that really changed her fortune. The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story on her course in early 2005, “And that,” says Herman, “is when my world exploded.”
She notes that the range of people who are involved in her course often surprise her, and at times, even make her chuckle. The 17th century El Greco, Purification of the Temple, which she considers a “noisy” scene, prompted a detective to remark “First of all, I’d bring out the riot gear” he continued “And I’d collar the guy in pink, because he’s causing all the trouble.” The “guy in pink”, as it turns out, was Jesus Christ.
Herman endeavours to avoid works already well known. It is, according to her, “about what you notice” not the artistic merit of the piece.
She concludes: “I want to dismantle inhibitions. Because everybody sees something. Everybody.”
