Wednesday, July 14, 2010

ASK THE EXPERTS

On the other hand, don't.

Han van Meegeren was a 20th century forger, painting art in the style of 15th century artist Vermeer. One of the intriguing aspects about this forger is that he never claimed that his paintings were genuine Vermeer’s -- the so-called 20th century art experts made that decision. Oh, van Meegeren did forge Vermeer’s signature on the paintings, but that was not the basis on which these “experts” made their decisions.

The reason I mention this at all is that the “experts” are at it again. Well, they were, until proved wrong. Here is the story:

Many years ago an artist painted a very large mural that adorned a huge wall at the then only terminal at the San Jose Airport. Subsequently another terminal was built, and now a third one has just opened. It is now the intent to demolish the old terminal, and art lovers have been all up-in-arms about saving that mural. “Can’t be done,” said the experts. How about saving the entire wall? Far too expensive - over a million dollars - especially in these difficult financial times. Other possible solutions were suggested, but deemed impractical by the “experts”. The mural would be shredded, they said. The artist could not be consulted because he had passed away a few years ago.

Then the newspaper reported that an astonishingly easy solution had been accomplished. Well, reasonably easy, considering the foregoing. The artist’s son flew in to see what he might do, and upon examination of his father’s work, proceeded, with some help, to simply unroll the mural right off the wall! That’s right, he unrolled it. What the experts had failed to see was that the mural was painted on canvas, and then glued to the wall. Now all that remains is to find a wall big enough to put it back up.

Humor -

If They Wrote Computer Error Messages in Haiku:

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen
dies so beautifully.

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

1 comment:

  1. I read what I would say was a badly written book on the Van Meegeren thing--given that my father wrote "The Fabulous Frauds" and is an art dealer, the subject interested me.

    I love that the airport artist knew that walls are temporary and made it so his work might not be quite so. And I love that it was his son who saw what would have been obvious to artists.

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