A few years ago, Red Grooms gave artist Joe Fig a bit of insight he’s been turning over ever since.
The toughest part of artmaking, the pop artist told him, “is that moment where it appears like you are doing the least and you’re really working the hardest.”
The toughest part of artmaking, the pop artist told him, “is that moment where it appears like you are doing the least and you’re really working the hardest.”
Stand back. Think. Consider. Puzzle it out. Attack.
Contemplation, from the Latin “contemplari,” is an action word. It means to “gaze attentively, observe, to consider.” A person could get lost doing that, which is what the figures in Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer are doing. It's the newest exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art. The figures stand in front of the works of one of the greatest artists of all time, Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), in hushed amazement. They peer. They scan. They gape. And Fig has captured them, a group of strangers mesmerized by a painting not much bigger than a standard piece of paper, all gawking in collective wonderment.
