Posts Tagged ‘Vermeer’
“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen”*…
Lawrence Weschler is no stranger to controversy. In 2000 he published an article in The New Yorker, recounting a theory that David Hockey had shared with him, that ignited a fire storm in the art world– and that burns (or at least smolders) to this day.
And he’s at it again…
A few months back—in the lee of the Rijksmuseum’s epic Vermeer show and Ren’s [Wechsler’s] controversial Atlantic magazine article (featured in our Issue #39) on Vermeer and Benjamin Binstock’s intriguing contention that eight of the thirty-four paintings conventionally attributed to the Delft master were in fact by his daughter Maria—the eminent curator Helen Molesworth invited Ren and Claudia Swan (the historian behind Rarities of These Lands and other classics on the Dutch Golden Age) to engage in a conversation evaluating both that show and Binstock’s thesis for an episode of her ongoing Dialogues podcast, out of the David Zwirner Gallery. And indeed, that half-hour episode dropped yesterday—and we thought you might enjoy hearing it here. Spoiler alert: Two of the top people in the field seem decidedly open to Binstock’s theory…
Fascinating: “Vermeer’s Daughter?”
* Robert Bresson
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As we argue over attribution, we might send grateful birthday greetings to Leon Battista Alberti; he was born on this date in 1404. The archetypical Renaissance humanist polymath, Alberti was an author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cartographer, and cryptographer. Indeed, with Johannes Trithemius, he is considered the father of cryptography. And he collaborated with Toscanelli on the maps used by Columbus on his first voyage.
But he is surely best remembered as the man who “wrote the book” on perspective: he authored of the first general treatise– De Pictura (1434)– on the the laws of perspective, which built on and extended Brunelleschi’s work to describe the approach and technique that established the science of projective geometry… and fueled the progress of painting, sculpture, and architecture from the Greek- and Arabic-influenced formalism of the High Middle Ages to the more naturalistic (and Latinate) styles of Renaissance.
“Such art reinforces human dignity”*…
For a growing number of twenty-first-century viewers the paintings of Johannes Vermeer reserve some of the most profound insights into the nature of human existence that a work of art can provide. The artist’s ability to side-step didactic finger-wagging and picturesque anecdote, both quintessential characteristics of Dutch painting of the Golden Age, is unique, as are the formal perfection of his compositions and his precise but powerful painting technique. His few themes–letter writing, letter reading, courtship, domestic chores, and scientific inquiry—appear pertinent to today’s museum goers as to those Dutch women and men who gazed upon his deceptively simple pictures 350 years ago.
The primary goal of the Essential Vermeer website is to take full advantage of the extraordinary potential of the World Wide Web and Internet Technology in order to provide a thorough and organic presentation of the art, life and cultural milieu of Vermeer. Complex art historical issues are dealt with in a straightforward manner so that they become comprehensible to the curious art lover without losing their value for inquiring writers or art specialists. News of Vermeer-related exhibitions, publications and multi-media events are reported in real time.
All (and I do mean all) about Dutch master: The Essential Vermeer
* Great art, for those who insist upon this rather philistine concept (as if un-great art were unworthy of even their most casual and ill-informed attention), makes us stand back and admire. It rushes upon us pell-mell like the work of Rubens or Tintoretto or Delacroix, or towers above us. There is of course another aesthetic: the art of a Vermeer or a Braque seeks not to amaze and appal but to invite the observer to come closer, to close with the painting, peer into it, become intimate with it. Such art reinforces human dignity.
– Germaine Greer. The Obstacle Race (1979)
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As we light up, we might spare a thought for Franz Marc; he died on this date in 1916. A painter and printmaker, he was one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement, and a founder of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a journal whose name later became synonymous with the circle of artists collaborating in it.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”*…
In an a spirit very like that of last week’s featured artist (figures from classic art “spliced” into the real world), Julien de Casabianca, a Corsican artist and film-maker, created Outings to set museum pieces free– to move art from gallery walls to the street.
Take it to the streets at Outings.
* Pablo Picasso
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As we get up against the wall, we might spare a thought for Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer; he died on this date in 1675. A moderately successful Dutch provincial genre painter in his lifetime, Vermeer created relatively few paintings (34 are confidently attributed to him), mostly domestic interior scenes; his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. But he was “rediscovered” in the mid-19th century, and is now considered one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age.
See Girl With A Pearl Earring, The Milkmaid, The Lacemaker, and his other paintings here. (And see The Milkmaid in the Gluten-Free Museum here :)
Detail of the painting The Procuress (c. 1656), considered to be a self portrait by Vermeer
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