OMMM: Our Museum Mindfulness Meditation
Jul 2, 2026 · 8 min · 6 segments
For much of history, blue was one of the most fugitive pigments in art. Writer and historian Victoria Finlay, author of the book…
Victoria FinlayGuestLilit SadoyanHostVictoria, you spent some time at the Getty Center back in 2013 writing this book, The Brilliant History of Color in Art.
What was it like being at the Getty and looking closely at Munch's painting over an extended period of time?

[laughs] So I was at the Getty for five weeks, and I'm guessing that quite a lot of people listening might have had a bit of a dream of one day living at a museum, and I got to do it.

I, um, spent quite a lot of time, obviously, at the library and talking to some of your colleagues about the works, but I did always, every day, I went into the galleries, and I would look.

Sometimes I would spin around the galleries, but really the most helpful thing was to concentrate on one or two paintings only.

I was lent this huge magnifying glass, and I was allowed, 'cause the guards recognized me, to go really close in and start examining the paint and the colors and how things played against each other.

And one of the paintings that I chose, not knowing I would be invited to do this many years later, was Starry Night.

I was there to study color, and therefore, I really looked at the paintings that seemed to kind of encapsulate the use of color and how it could be really magical in art.

Um, but also, he uses shades of blue that seem to answer the question: how would you paint a starry night? I mean, you wouldn't just have a kind of dark canvas and then dot little, little stars on it.

You want, you want to capture, and he does that with his uses of different blues to capture that moment when it goes from light to dark.
Victoria, you spent some time at the Getty Center back in 2013 writing this book, The Brilliant History of Color in Art.
What was it like being at the Getty and looking closely at Munch's painting over an extended period of time?

[laughs] So I was at the Getty for five weeks, and I'm guessing that quite a lot of people listening might have had a bit of a dream of one day living at a museum, and I got to do it.

I, um, spent quite a lot of time, obviously, at the library and talking to some of your colleagues about the works, but I did always, every day, I went into the galleries, and I would look.

Sometimes I would spin around the galleries, but really the most helpful thing was to concentrate on one or two paintings only.

I was lent this huge magnifying glass, and I was allowed, 'cause the guards recognized me, to go really close in and start examining the paint and the colors and how things played against each other.

And one of the paintings that I chose, not knowing I would be invited to do this many years later, was Starry Night.

I was there to study color, and therefore, I really looked at the paintings that seemed to kind of encapsulate the use of color and how it could be really magical in art.

Um, but also, he uses shades of blue that seem to answer the question: how would you paint a starry night? I mean, you wouldn't just have a kind of dark canvas and then dot little, little stars on it.

You want, you want to capture, and he does that with his uses of different blues to capture that moment when it goes from light to dark.
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