> After Emily left I checked on the internet and it turns out she was right, you really do just look at it, that’s all!

Well, that's one way of doing it, and it's what most people do, but you're not going to get the most out of it.

Rothko's Four Seasons murals are a good example - big slabs of colour, nothing too complicated. But then when you find out that he said ...

> "I accepted this assignment with strictly malicious intentions," Rothko said. "I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room." He wanted his paintings to make them feel that they were trapped in the room "where all the doors and windows are bricked up, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall."

... you get a better appreciation for them.