One visits the Mauritshuis in den Haag to see old masters. Rembrandt and those other guys plus a few Vermeer’s (Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft are the famous ones). One does not expect to see, hung next to these illustrious paintings, contemporary black and white photos making commentary on the neighboring master.
Our friend Hendrik, who is an artist and art reviewer, wrote a review of the exhibit within the exhibit that appeared in the paper yesterday. He has promised to send me the original file so I can translate it to English and read it.
For example, here is Rembrandt’s self portrait and right next to it a self portrait by photographer Stephan Vanfleteren (2026)
About his photo, “Looking in a Mirror “ Stephan says:
“A self-portrait is a difficult genre. You’re both the observer and the observed, a treacherous double role. It unmasks how you want to show yourself to the outside world.
The background of the photo is green, the colour of hope. The symbolic importance of colour is often underestimated, but the space between foreground and background is even more so. I find that no-man’s-land to be the most beautiful invisible space in art.
If you look closely at Rembrandt’s eyes, you can see that his pupils are wide open, and thus he painted himself in the twilight.
My self-portrait was also taken in the dark, resulting in a blurred, moving face and invisible eyes.”
Interesting!