The Penn and Teller film (Penn talks, Teller directs) Tim's Vermeer is
a rapturous demonstration of one man's magnificent obsession. It's also
very, very funny.
The plot has the San Antonio inventor but non-artist Tim Jenison prove
that the unprecedented detail of a Vermeer painting could perhaps only
be done with a mechanical device. He builds one, makes his own lenses,
grinds his own period paints and then laboriously but precisely paints
his own Vermeer. QED.
But the theme of the film might be the contemporary dissociation of
sensibility. T.S. Eliot coined that term to describe the split between
reason and the emotional life that happened between the Metaphysical
Poets and the Victorians.
But the phrase could equally apply to the contemporary split between
art and technology. Vermeer is no less an artist — indeed arguably an
even more impressive intelligence and craftsman — for having devised
some mechanical supplement for his painting, perhaps along the lines of
Jenison's. And Jenison's technical brilliance and craft should surely
not disqualify him from the title "artist." His sharp eye and
scrupulously detailed mark-making deserve no lesser title. Perhaps it
was that confluence of art and science that attracted the brilliant
team of magicians to the project. For more see
www.yacowar.blogspot.com.
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