Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’, ousted by teen’s phone watch

Many of us will have seen that photo of the group of teens hunched over their phones, as Rembrandt’s Night Watch hangs behind them in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, abjectly ignored. (http://bit.ly/1tcoppj). Is it a tiny bit unrealistic to expect a bunch of 21st century teens to engage with a 1642 painting of men in silly hats waving swords? Or are contemporary teenagers a bunch of digital philistines?
Selecting a city full of art — Amsterdam — and a random 13-year-old and 15-year-old from the sofa in my sitting room, I introduce the topic to the unsuspecting guinea pigs in my social experiment. A pragmatic approach seems sensible, to initially pique their interest. Amsterdam is full of weed cafes and ladies standing in shop windows with almost no clothes on, I tell them. And there are two Banksy exhibitions happening there at the moment, I add, cleverly slipping the art in between the sex and drugs.