Comments on The Bibliophilic Blogger: Hammershoi: the Poetry of Silence

Obviously far too hasty there & currently reading ...

2008-07-26T10:14:00.000+01:00

Obviously far too hasty there & currently reading Tolstoy's Resurrection & tis obvious that it is a time that'd view Tolstoy as dated that would in truth be the one of impermanence. But what I kind of meant regarding him is his characters are embedded within their times in a way Dostosvky's aren't; Dostoevsky's sense of reality being more nakedly existential.

I hadn't discovered him until this blog entry, but...

2008-07-24T13:09:00.000+01:00

I hadn't discovered him until this blog entry, but now that I have this looks very interesting.

Thanks for pointing this out, I'm not sure I'd have spotted it otherwise, much appreciated.

Just doing a quick look at more of his stuff & see...

2008-07-22T12:14:00.000+01:00

Just doing a quick look at more of his stuff & seeing him ignored for a long time for being apparently 'dated'.
It seems Hammershoi's art could be described as timeless; his paintings appear to exist in a timeless space. They are not inhabiting a world of progress; there is no clock ticking its relentless path onwards. And contrarily perhaps art( in the broad sense) that exists precisely within a moment of time is what becomes dated- for example, I can't honestly say Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon appears a fresh work of art to me.

I might be reaching too far, but Dickens & Tolstoy are far more dated than Dostoevsky, while they seem to be more intimately concerned with the world that exists in time, whereas Dostoevsky's figures are only very incidentally connected to the time they inhabit. Whatever.

The given painting very suggestive of a more muted...

2008-07-22T11:56:00.000+01:00

The given painting very suggestive of a more muted Vermeer.

I discovered Hammershoi via a blog (I forget which...

2008-07-21T08:40:00.000+01:00

I discovered Hammershoi via a blog (I forget which!) about 3 months ago. Got quite excited and read more about him in Patricia G. Berman's "In Another Light: Danish Painting In The Nineteenth Century" -- http://tinyurl.com/3nld8c -- and then found out about the exhibition. Serendipity!

Has to be the finest exhibition I've seen in an age ... wonderful, wonderful painter.