Tim's Vermeer

Tim's Vermeer is a a new documentary focusing on how the 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer may have painted his works has will be showing this year (although not likely out here in the suburbs, so we may have to wait for on-line distribution).

 The film is a joint effort between artist David Hockney (who has long had an interest in the collaboration between photography and painting, and Teller and Penn, the famous magicians/illusionists. It is believed by the film-makers that Vermeer may have used a "camera obscura", a device with lenses/mirrors to project a scene from life, to use as a guide when painting. This raises some interesting questions about the use of technology when creating art. It seems to be quite accepted now, and in fact, many contemporary works could not be created without the use of computers, lasers, etc. Is it just the fact that Vermeer painted so many years ago what makes this controversial? Apparently, in the film, a non-artist will use the method to create a painting.

 

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, Delft 1632–1675 Delft)

Vermeer has always been something of a mystery; he did not leave a large body of work, and there have been controversies over the authorship of works over the years.

Some questions, that will perhaps be answered when I can finally see this film are: Was it "cheating"? Does it matter? If in fact this was his method, it was not entirely unknown, yet we don't seem to have other artists painting at the same level as Vermeer. Why not? Was it the additional talent that Vermeer provided, or an artistic vision different from what others had?

 For more information about the work shown above, visit the entry in the Metropolitan Museum site.