Slatted Cultural Meeting
I spent the day wandering the The National Museum of Western Art, at the
From Renaissance to Rococo. Four Centuries of European Drawing, Painting and Sculpture on loan from the Berlin Museum. It was an ambitious show that lead the viewer on a journey from the development in European art.
The museum was packed with people of all ages drinking in visual information. Some of the sculptures were small ornamental figures, and church decorations. I loved bending down and looking at the statues in their eyes. Meeting their gaze into my one line of sight. With the three dimensional works I cloud descend to their vision field. In the Dutch masters room of the exhibition the people always gazed off into the distance. We could never line up our eyes together. We only could catch glances of each other.
The masters could catch drama like no other. These action frozen moments for eternity. The instance as a fight is about to break out. The moment of spiritual enlightenment. Mad drama created with ground pigments and the artist’s imagination.
As I often am so unimpressed with curations of the best of the new artists, I find myself longing for older works of art. I want to understand why these works have withstood time. What makes them so special that they have been admired.
As I paused in a small anteroom between galleries, the light was cutting across the blinds. The courtyard was lit in the afternoon light. The moment was right. It took just a fraction of a second to create the image on the CCD. The opening of the shutter burned the light on the digital film. Another frozen moment of light and shadow. Will it stand the test of the ages? I really have no idea. All I know is that I will continue to seek inspirations and keep on clicking the shutter.