Art sleuth needed
August 9, 2009 7:26 AM Subscribe
Do you recognize the photographer/artist whose work is hanging in this dining room?
On preview: nothing to add to allelopath, except a link.
The big painting in the middle of the photograph is 'Paris Street in Rainy Weather', by Gustav Caillebotte. And that painting is located at the Art Institute Of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
posted by ijsbrand at 7:37 AM on August 9, 2009
The big painting in the middle of the photograph is 'Paris Street in Rainy Weather', by Gustav Caillebotte. And that painting is located at the Art Institute Of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
posted by ijsbrand at 7:37 AM on August 9, 2009
To add a little background, The painting in the photograph is indeed Paris Street in Rainy Weather by Caillebotte, though the photograph of it is by the German photographer Thomas Struth. It is part of a series of photographs he did in museums throughout the world where he studied people in the act of viewing artwork.
posted by bill the tinman at 7:57 AM on August 9, 2009
posted by bill the tinman at 7:57 AM on August 9, 2009
Best answer: Definitely Struth. I think he's done a few series in this vein - large-format photographs of people looking at works of art in big institutions. A lot has been written about them - if you're interested this retrospective book wouldn't be a bad place to start.
If Struth interests you then you should probably look into Jeff Wall too. His stuff and the criticism around it is way way way over my head though. Very much art about art theory.
Sophie Calle made an interesting piece once that's more my speed. She replaced famous paintings in a gallery with a text description of them, as spoken by the people who spend their working lives in the galleries and museums.
Oh, and Stephen Gill's 'gallery wardens' series is fun too. Can't direct link, but it's a few pages on in here.
Finally, Keith Arnatt once did a piece involving photographs of gallery wardens. I can't recall the exact details, but it was a 1970s serious-play conceptual subversion thing. I think he even had the guards guarding their own portraits. Lovely.
posted by SebastianKnight at 7:58 AM on August 9, 2009 [3 favorites]
If Struth interests you then you should probably look into Jeff Wall too. His stuff and the criticism around it is way way way over my head though. Very much art about art theory.
Sophie Calle made an interesting piece once that's more my speed. She replaced famous paintings in a gallery with a text description of them, as spoken by the people who spend their working lives in the galleries and museums.
Oh, and Stephen Gill's 'gallery wardens' series is fun too. Can't direct link, but it's a few pages on in here.
Finally, Keith Arnatt once did a piece involving photographs of gallery wardens. I can't recall the exact details, but it was a 1970s serious-play conceptual subversion thing. I think he even had the guards guarding their own portraits. Lovely.
posted by SebastianKnight at 7:58 AM on August 9, 2009 [3 favorites]
Just had another thought - do you know the source of the image you linked to above? I ask because there are a number of art photographers getting even more meta about this stuff and taking pictures of private or corporate-owned high-value high-prestige art and then showing those pictures in galleries. It's interesting in a number of ways, most of which I don't understand, but what it boils down to is sort of like saying "This $10,000 photograph now hangs in a corporate meeting room/wealthy family dining room/behind a rich person's couch." The depiction of artistic aura and value being relegated to home/office decor and status symbol.
If that applies to your original image then we're in a sort of onion peel situation.
posted by SebastianKnight at 10:45 AM on August 9, 2009
If that applies to your original image then we're in a sort of onion peel situation.
posted by SebastianKnight at 10:45 AM on August 9, 2009
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posted by allelopath at 7:34 AM on August 9, 2009