I live less than a block away from a sweet little art museum that houses a grand gallery of classic and contemporary art in their permanent collection, plus two theaters for multi-media installations, and a gallery that features collections on loan.
Currently, the Frye Art Museum is showing paintings by a Danish artist from the early 1900's named Vilhelm Hammershøi. His claim to fame was that he painted fairly stark interiors of his own house, using a very limited and muted color palate, while focusing on light and lines.
I took a veeeerrry slow walk through the exhibit, and a veeeeeeerrrrrry long look at each painting, because that's what I've inferred you're supposed to do when appreciating fine art. I didn't want to accidentally not appreciate something, and thereby be exposed as a fraud in front of all the legitimately classy gallery patrons. (Also, I think I really do like his work.)
It was that very slow walk and that very long look that led me to realize this painting may as well have been precisely designed to drive me crazy:
Do you see it?
It has been gnawing at me ever since I noticed it.
Did he do that out of inattention?
Or did he do it on purpose as some sort of quietly sadistic artist joke?
Why, Hammershøi? Why?
Hmmm, it looks like there is no doorknob? Perhaps it is a swinging door...
ReplyDeleteOr that the molding on the door looks crooked?
Now I'm being driven crazy wondering what you meant ;-)
Look at the window: Count the windowpanes, and see how the curtains hang.
DeleteNow, look at the pattern of the sunlight coming through that window onto the floor. Aaack!
Ah, I think the sun from the bottom panes in falling on the window sill.
DeleteAnd it looks like the windows are set back from the wall by a few inches, so the curtains aren't very close to the glass which affects the shadow from the curtains
I want to believe, Hil. I tried taking myself into that very same thing, but just couldn't reconcile it with my brain's internal sense of geometry. Clearly, your genes for art appreciation and 3D spatial reasoning are working better than mine are! ;-)
Delete