online: 18 september 2015
modified: 18 september 2015
18 september 2015 portrait and presence
national gallery and national portrait gallery (London)
...while visiting these galleries i am remembering slight but profound
differences between portraits of the italian renaissance and those of
the 20th or 21st century...
...the renaissance portraits ('eg of 'a man' or of 'a woman') strongly
resemble the actual faces, hands, clothing etc of we who are looking at
or guarding the paintings... which paintings in some way can easily be
perceived asif they are actual people or presences... (although we know
they are not flesh and clothing but paint)
...whereas i remember the contemporary pictures in the portrait gallery
not as paintings of people but as paintings of photographs...
(photographs unconsciously remembered by the painters?)
two days later:
...those three paragraphs were difficult to write... i am still
rewriting them... as these thoughts and words seem to be becoming
another reality... (as i change and adjust them to form statements i can
understand and feel happy with)...
...at which i recall a statement that may clarify this:
the skill of writing is to provide a context in which other people can
think
Edwin Schlossberg, 'For My Father', in About Bateson: essays on Gregory
Bateson, edited by John Brockman, Dutton,New York 1977), p157.
...at which i wonder if conscious realism has become outdated (now that
thoughts about thoughts have become an informative and acceptable part
of communication...)
hours later:
see outcome of these thoughts in the next entry:
18 september 2015
homepage
© 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 john chris jones
You may transmit this text to anyone for any
non-commercial purpose if you include the copyright line and this notice
and if you respect the copyright of quotations.
If you wish to reproduce any of this text
commercially please send a copyright permission request to jcj at
publicwriting.net