Hi.
First a note. If you happened to subscribed to this newsletter after I sent the latest issue at the beginning of January, I’d like to remind you that it contained all the information I was able to gather about the upcoming Vermeer retrospective in Amsterdam February 10. In the case you’re interested, you can view it here.
In the mean time, a few items have come to my attention that I think might be of interest, including a Vermeer-related symposium at the Rijksmuseum, a recent book on Vermeer and the viewing schedule of two Vermeer-related TV events, both of which I was invited to participate in.
Again, hope to see you in Amsterdam.
My very best,
Jonathan Janson
BTW, although I haven’t finished it yet—I am currently in panic mode due to retrospective-related issues and am, in any case, an exceptionally slow reader— I strongly recommend Gregor Weber’s recent book Johannes Vermeer. Faith, Light and Reflection. It will no doubt become required reading for anyone interested in the life and art of Vermeer, and I believe it will stand side by side with John Montias’ seminal Vermeer biography and fill in no few of the gaps left open in by past research, especially regarding Vermeer’s involvement with the camera obscura.
in brief:
1.
International Vermeer Symposium
<https://hnanews.org/vermeer-international-symposium/>
from the NHA website:
In collaboration with the Mauritshuis, the Rijksmuseum will host a two-day symposium (in Amsterdam, 28-29 March 2023) focusing on recent technical and art historical research.
In preparation for the upcoming Vermeer retrospective (10 February 2023 to 4 June 2023), Vermeer paintings from Dutch and international collections have been examined using the latest non-invasive imaging technologies. These revealed new insights into Vermeer’s creative process, and the specific materials and techniques that he used. Also, new art historical research has led us to better understand Vermeer as a person and an artist.
Almost 30 years after the ground-breaking symposium New Vermeer Studies (National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. 1995 / Mauritshuis, The Hague 1996), the 2023 symposium in Amsterdam will provide an exceptional opportunity to share, update and discuss our current knowledge of Vermeer’s artistic choices and characteristics of his ingenious painting technique.
Further information about the program and participation will follow.
For questions about the symposium: VermeerSymposium2023@rijksmuseum.nl
For more information about the symposium, and to book tickets, click here.
Information on the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer exhibition can be found here..
2.
Vermeer and the Art of Love: A Thoughtful Consideration of Vermeer's Painted Meditation of Love
Aneta Georgievska-Shine
Vermeer and the Art of Love is about the emotions evoked in those elegant interiors in which a young woman may be writing a letter to her absent beloved or playing a virginal in the presence of an admirer. But it is also about the love we sense in the painter’s attentiveness to every detail within those rooms, which lends even the most mundane of objects the quality of something extraordinary.
In this engaging and beautifully illustrated book, Georgievska-Shine uncovers the ways in which Vermeer challenges the dichotomies between 'good' and 'bad' love, the sensual and the spiritual, placing him within the context of his contemporaries to give the reader a fascinating insight into his unique understanding and interpretation of the subject.
Vermeer and the Art of Love deals with private emotions evoked in domestic interiors in which a young woman may be writing a letter to her absent beloved or playing a virginal in the presence of an admirer. But it is also about the love we sense in the painter’s attentiveness to every detail within those rooms, which lends even the most mundane of objects the quality of something extraordinary. In this engaging book, the author uncovers the ways in which Vermeer challenges the dichotomies between 'good' and 'bad' love, the sensual and the spiritual, placing him within the context of his contemporaries, as well as within the broader discourse on love and art in early modern Europe.
Aneta Georgievska-Shine is an academic and writer. A senior lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Maryland, she has published widely on early modern art, including the books Rubens, Velázquez, and the King of Spain (co-authored, Ashgate, 2014) and Rubens and the Archaeology of Myth (Ashgate, 2009).
<https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/vermeer-and-the-art-of-love>
3.
(Although I reported this piece of news in the last newsletter, the broadcasting schedule is now available. Here’s a brief reminder.)
Dicht bij Vermeer (Close to Vermeer)
<https://www.docmakers.nl/films/dicht-bij-vermeer>
Credits
produced by Docmakers
director: Suzanne Raes
executive producer: Lieke van den Ouwelant
producer: Ilja Roomans
Much has been written about Vermeer, painter of iconic paintings and crowd-pullers such as The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring, but little is known about his life. His small oeuvre of 35 surviving works is almost all that he left behind.
Gregor J. M. Weber, a globally renowned Vermeer connoisseur and flamboyant curator of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, is followed as he works on his big dream in the year before he retires: the largest Vermeer exhibition ever staged. Together with Weber, a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts set out to find out what really makes a Vermeer a Vermeer.
Through a series of new discoveries and a layer-by-layer analysis of the artist's key painting, Close to Vermeer brings the viewer closer to this enigmatic artist, analyzing the artistic decisions he made and probing the step-by-step evolution in his oeuvre.
4.
De Nieuwe Vermeer (The New Vermeer)
The first episode will be on Sunday the 12th of February at 20:30u (GMT+1). Omroep Max on NPO1 (Dutch Public Network).
2023 will be the year of Johannes Vermeer. As one of the biggest Dutch painters in history, he will get his largest exhibition ever in the Rijksmuseum. However, six paintings are missing. The new Dutch television program De
Nieuwe Vermeer gives creatives all over the Netherlands the chance to recreate one of these missing artworks. Everything is allowed, from abstract to realistic and from a painting to a tapestry, as long as it is made in the spirit of Vermeer.
In every episode two professional painters get the task to recreate one of the missing paintings of Vermeer–in Vermeer’s style. They need to let go of their own style and completely immerse in the world of the famous painter. They will get the help of experts Pieter Roelofs and Abbie Vandivere while they try to find and capture the true essence of Vermeer and his style. Not only do the professional painters get a chance of participating in the competition, as every artist in Holland can join in the second category of the competition; de Vrije Categorie. Their assignment is to focus on their personal interpretation of Vermeer. They can use their own style and materials, as long as it meets the given criteria for the size of the artwork. Hostess Dionne Stax will follow every step of their journey, as they create their own version of one of the six missing paintings.
Judge Pieter Roelofs (Head of Paintings and Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum) and Abbie Vandivere (Paintings Conservator at the Mauritshuis) will eventually decide who will win the episode and earn a place to the exhibition.
The program will be broadcasted by Omroep Max on NPO1 (Dutch public network). The first episode will be on Sunday the 12th of February at 20:30u (GMT+1).
The show can also be watched at NPO start <https://www.npostart.nl/>.