On MoMA's 5th floor the other day, the painting I responded to most viscerally was this Picasso, "The Kitchen."

On a screen it's just one more rectangle among all the rectangles we encounter, mediated by screens, throughout every day: the trusty <img>, slotted in wherever it will fit.

What you'll have to take my word for is the monumentality of this painting: nearly 6 by 8 feet. It is vast and imposing, especially if you draw close.

At that size, the painting reaches past color and line to become something that looms and confronts. I felt uneasy, like different figures were pushing out at me, though never all at once.

It was a good reminder of the power of the direct encounter with an artwork, something we tend to sacrifice for the expedient facsimile. It's been a while since I've been to the movie theater, or gone to a musical performance for its own sake. I'll be trying to make more time and space for that -- and specifically for art that challenges in a way that can't be easily summed up or compartmentalized.