Unspooling Vermeer

stratg — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 20:17:01 +0000

Stephanie Dickey

Wherever I go, I look for evidence of how the historical art I study impacts visual culture today. In “After Vermeer 2,” an installation from 2006 by New York artist Devorah Sperber, 5024 spools of thread strung on steel chains recreate, upside down, the famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring” painted by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer around 1665. My photo captures the viewer’s experience of looking through a glass sphere in which the image rights itself. Vermeer, whose paintings explored both optics and female experience, would surely have appreciated this perceptive transformation of his art.

Location of photograph:

Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, USA

Prize name:

Winner, Art in Action

Submission Year:

2017-18

Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art

Unspooling Vermeer