Good doesn't cut it: quality and quantity in the reception history of Vermeer
Lecture by Kristian Vistrup Madsen
Guest lecture as part of the seminar "Art Criticism" (Kathrin Heinrich)
In
the mid 18th century, the King of Saxony bought a Vermeer because he was told it was a Rembrandt, and he believed it. A few
decades on, the King of France declined to buy a Vermeer because it was not a Rembrandt. Vermeer has always been good – anyone
could see that. But good doesn’t cut it when you’re selling to kings, oil barons, financiers, and rappers. His example tells
us that, across art history, from Old Masters to post-postmodernists, quality is not a given, but subject to trend and capital.
In this lecture, Kristian Vistrup Madsen traces how value was attributed to Vermeer's paintings, and how value, over time,
made us see those paintings differently.
Kristian
Vistrup Madsen is a writer and art critic based in Berlin. He has contributed to magazines such as Artforum, Harpers, The
White Review, and Kunstkritikk. "Doing Time: Essays on Using People" was published by Floating Opera Press in 2021.
A cooperation between the departments of Art History, Painting and Philosophy in the context of the seminar „Art Criticism“
by Kathrin Heinrich.
The „Kristian Vistrup Madsen Show“ will then open on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 6 pm.
More information: https://abteilungmalerei.uni-ak.ac.at/The_Kristian_Vistrup_Madsen_Show.html
