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Join Us ‣ Writer Kelsey McKinney — best known as the host of the tea-spilling podcast Normal Gossip — reflects in Defector on falling out of love with an artwork. For her, it was Monet’s famed “Impression, Sunrise,” which first stole her heart as a teenager: We emerged in a large octagonal room with giant square Monet paintings on the wall, and I felt my stomach drop. They were smaller than I remembered.
They were less vibrant. I had seen bigger versions of them at other museums since, and I was stunned into silence. These were supposed to be all-time great pieces of art.
These were supposed to be the kind of art that could move me to tears over and over again regardless of how long it had been since I’d seen them. Like the Winged Victory of Samothrace, my stomach was supposed to flip in their presence. But it didn’t.
I felt nothing. I should have expected it, in a way. My relationship with Monet has changed.
Prominent curators ha.