Vermeer: Harmony and Order

Johannes Vermeer - “The Girl with the Red Hat” - c. 1665 - Oil on panel - 22.8 x 18 cm (9 x 7 1/16 in.) - National Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C. (click photo for larger image)Dutch artist Johannes (Jan) Vermeer (1632-1635) created paintings that are among the most beloved and revered images in the history of art. He only enjoyed moderate success during his lifetime. After his death, his paintings continued to be admired by a small group of connoisseurs, primarily in Delft and Amsterdam.

By the 19th century, a number of Vermeer’s paintings had been attributed to other, more prolific Dutch artists. However, when the French painter-critic Étiene-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (who wrote under the pseudonym William Bürger) published his enthusiastic descriptions of Vermeer’s paintings in 1866, passion for the artist’s work reached a broader public. As private collectors and public museums actively sought to acquire his rare paintings during the early years of the 20th century, prices for his work skyrocketed. This situation encouraged the production of forgeries, the most notorious of which were those painted by Han van Meegeren in the 1930s. At the end of the 20th century, Vermeer’s fame continued to rise, fueled in part by an exhibition of his work held in 1995–96 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The exhibition also drew public attention to the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (c. 1665), which was featured on the National Gallery’s promotional materials and quickly became one of Vermeer’s most famous pieces by the turn of the 21st century.

Although only about 36 of his paintings survive, these rare works are among the greatest treasures in the world’s finest museums. The remarkably small oeuvre of the artist has only increased in popularity across generations. Vermeer found beneath the accidents of nature a realm infused with harmony and order, and, in giving visual form to that realm, he revealed the poetry existing within transient moments of human existence. (Excerpted from Britannica Online)

"The Girl with the Red Hat" is small even by Vermeer's standards; it is his only known work that was executed on wood panel and, most importantly, its immediacy and intimacy contrast sharply with the meditative mood of the artist’s other paintings. Despite its modest dimensions, a strong visual impact results from the large scale of the girl. Brought close to the picture plane, she communicates directly with the viewer. Her direct gaze and slightly parted lips impart a sense of spontaneity and anticipation. (Excerpted from The Artchive)

Impact 2022: Art That Bears Witness

Barbara Kruger - Untitled (Your body is a battleground) - 1989 - photographic silkscreen on vinyl - 112 x 112 in. (284.48 x 284.48 cm) - The BROAD Museum - Los Angeles, CA (click photo for larger image)As always, Bethany Arts Community will be mounting significant exhibits in 2022. A call for art for “Impact 2022: Art that Bears Witness” is described as follows on the BAC website:

“Throughout history, artists have played a vital role to bear witness to society’s injustices. As a democracy we have the right to create and exhibit protest art. Whether it is about racism, sexism, human rights, immigration, LGBTQ, food insecurity, housing, health care, criminal justice, or the environment, the creative community has informed, provoked, and influenced for change. Artists amplifying social issues are varied and include examples such as the many paintings of George Floyd by artists around the world amplifying the pain of the Black Lives Matter movement, or the 1937 painting Guernica, by Picasso, with its powerful anti-war statement, or Barbara Kruger's silkscreen, Your Body is A Battleground, created for the March For Women's Lives.“

The exhibition will include a variety of media such as painting, sculpture, video, light, photography, and multimedia.

Click HERE to learn more and/or to participate. Submission Deadline: January 31, 2022

The image featured here is of an untitled work (Your body is a battleground) that was produced by American artist Barbara Kruger (born 1945) for the Women's March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom. The woman's face, disembodied, split in positive and negative exposures, and obscured by text, marks a stark divide. This image is simultaneously art and protest.

Edvard Munch: The Woodcut & Printmaker

Edvard Munch - Ashes II (Aske II) - 1899 - Lithograph with watercolor additions - 13 15/16 x 18" (35.4 x 45.7 cm); sheet (irreg.): 16 1/4 x 19 1/2" (41.3 x 49.6 cm) - Kristiania (present day Oslo), Norway.

Perhaps his most direct formal influence on subsequent art can be seen in the area of the woodcut, the medieval form of which was actually revived as a tradition, later, by the Expressionists. But Munch was a pioneer in this area, which opened the flood gates on printmaking.

Printmaking was an essential component of Munch's art following his introduction to the graphic media in 1894. With the capacity to produce multiple works from a single plate, stone, or woodblock, printmaking served to expand the accessibility of the artist’s themes to the general public and to provide income. It also enabled him to experiment with his imagery: by altering color, line, texture, and composition, Munch drastically changed the appearance and emotional impact of a given subject. Thus a woman kissing a man could appear amorous in one print, predatory in another; a sick child could seem feverish in one impression, ashen in the next.

The Limbourg Brothers Calendar: January (Banquet Scene)

The Limbourg Brothers - Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry: January, miniature - ca. 1411-1416 - Manuscript - 11 2/5 × 8 3/10 in. (29 × 21 cm) (click photo for larger image)The Limbourg brothers (Dutch: Gebroeders van Limburg; fl. 1385 – 1416) were famous Dutch miniature painters (Herman, Paul, and Johan) from the city of Nijmegen. They were active in the early 15th century in France and Burgundy, working in the style known as International Gothic.

Renowned for their International Gothic-style manuscript illustrations, the three Limbourg brothers did much to influence early Dutch art. Descendants of artist-artisans, the brothers served under the Duke of Burgundy and his brother Jean, Duke of Berry, illuminating prayer books and bibles. 

The brothers are best known for their Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is considered their masterpiece and one of the landmarks of the art of book illumination. The brothers’ detailed, sensitive renderings of landscapes combined naturalism with decorative effects. They are also known for their sophisticated construction of pictorial space, expressive emotional narratives, and elegant use of light.

They left the Très Riches Heures unfinished when they all died suddenly, perhaps during an outbreak of the plague early in 1416. Evidence of their deaths was obtained from the archives of Nijmegen, which record the receipt of the brothers’ possessions by their siblings still living in Nijmegen.

Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Orazio Gentileschi - Rest on the Flight to Egypt - 1625-26 - Oil on canvas, Height: 54 in (137.1 cm); Width: 85 in (215.9 cm) - Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna (click photo for larger image)Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639) was one of the more important Italian Mannerist painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style. His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist.

Bisected by a rough brick wall, dominated by the donkey’s head popping above it, Gentileschi’s Rest on the Flight to Egypt seems a strange composition. Joseph is essentially passed out with exhaustion, his head lolling backwards. The Virgin Mary’s feet are dirty and she is too tired to even cradle the hungry baby, who looks furtively in the direction of the viewer while being nursed. The Holy Family are fugitives from the murderous Herod and his Massacre of the Innocents (another theme addressed in the history of art).