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Real versus reproduction.
Aug. 24th, 2007 08:56 pmToday I went for a second time to the Monet to Dali art exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It is a collection on tour while the Cleveland Museum of Art is refurbished. The reason I went a second time - aside from wanting a chance to see things again - is that I bought the exhibition book, and was struck by how different some of the pieces look in reproduction. One example: Edouard Vuillard's _Cafe Wepler_ (1908-1912) is mostly peachy creamy yellows, and seems very sketchy in person (you get better focus the further back you stand). The reproduction's colours are mustardy muddy yellow, and the detail seems much more photographic - you seem to be seeing things more definitely than you do in person. Okay, I understand that colour is likely to suffer, but I didn't expect detail to be so maleable.
The reproductions also play fast and loose with the size of the pieces. Two Rodin heads are shown as the same size, where, in the versions we saw, one (William E. Henley 1882) is one tenth the size of the other (Pierre de Wiessant 1886). Someone tells me that Rodin had a method whereby he could cast any size he wished of a piece, so perhaps in some versions they are the same size as each other, but it is surprising.
While I was there, I suddenly took note of the frames of some of the pieces. The reproductions, of course, do not show the frames, and I think they are missing something. Where I paid attention to it (Georges Braque _Guitar and Bottle of Marc on a Table_ 1930, and Frantisek Kupka _Amphora, Fugue in Two Colours II_ 1910-1911, and Pablo Picasso _Bottle, Glass, Fork_ 1911-1912, and Lovis Corinth _Self-Portrait with Hat and Coat_ 1915, and Pablo Picasso _Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher_ 1939), the frame seemed to be part of the work and it added a great deal of depth.
All in all, some pieces just do not translate well to reproduction. If nothing else, the paint is shiny and contoured with brush marks and so the light changes as you move - almost as you breathe.
I would like to go again, but I do not know if I will have time before the exhibition closes.
The reproductions also play fast and loose with the size of the pieces. Two Rodin heads are shown as the same size, where, in the versions we saw, one (William E. Henley 1882) is one tenth the size of the other (Pierre de Wiessant 1886). Someone tells me that Rodin had a method whereby he could cast any size he wished of a piece, so perhaps in some versions they are the same size as each other, but it is surprising.
While I was there, I suddenly took note of the frames of some of the pieces. The reproductions, of course, do not show the frames, and I think they are missing something. Where I paid attention to it (Georges Braque _Guitar and Bottle of Marc on a Table_ 1930, and Frantisek Kupka _Amphora, Fugue in Two Colours II_ 1910-1911, and Pablo Picasso _Bottle, Glass, Fork_ 1911-1912, and Lovis Corinth _Self-Portrait with Hat and Coat_ 1915, and Pablo Picasso _Bull Skull, Fruit, Pitcher_ 1939), the frame seemed to be part of the work and it added a great deal of depth.
All in all, some pieces just do not translate well to reproduction. If nothing else, the paint is shiny and contoured with brush marks and so the light changes as you move - almost as you breathe.
I would like to go again, but I do not know if I will have time before the exhibition closes.
