We cry when we're moved, at weddings and funerals, at sappy films and saccharine moments. But have you ever cried in front of a painting? Rothko is an intellectual experience, you say. Caravaggio? an interesting window into the past. But art historian James Elkins says there's more heart, or gut, to it than that. And he began to ask people why we so rarely cry at paintings these days. In part, he says, it's our fault. We speed from piece to piece without allowing the art to speak. In part, he says, it's the dry, poison well of his own profession, which prefers to talk about "the significance of visual presentation for the stimulation of an empathetic response." But he's found people all over the world willing to stand by something more simple - and perhaps, more powerful.
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James Elkins, art historian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and author of "Pictures and Tears."
