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A feast for the eyes:

The Allegory of Painting, painted in the 17^th Century, is one of Vermeer’s most intriguing works of art, and is also the title of Sussane Husemann’s exhibition, at Rohtas 2 (June 2^nd - ). Vermeer’s women, engaged in their routine tasks, enclosed in household environs, are the subject of Husemann’s paintings, embodying Barthes theories of appropriation or perhaps I should say, embodying the practice of Painting itself. It makes one think about the practice of appropriation and simulation which occurs within the production of all art and production of ‘newness’ under the weight/power of pre-existing masterpieces. As Barthes writes that no author creates something new and unique. Instead, every produced thing is a recycled regurgitation of that which preceded it. Some of her paintings also make use of verbal means of expression in the form of hand-written text (borrowed or original), forcing the viewer to construct meaning of their own, thereby actively participating in the process of appropriation.

Husemann’s images don’t speak of Vermeer as much as they address his models, and relies heavily on the stories narrated throughout history and brings to mind the films (particularly ‘Girl with the pearl Earring’) and books that have provided us with the history/story of Vermeer’s models and speaks of the relationship between the fictionalized representation of art/artists versus the art historical context - the relationship between documentary and drama.

Her unruly application of paint is a fascinating component of the work and successful in capturing maximum amount of information with minimum brushwork, conveying emotion, enthusiasm and force. This immediacy and movement introduced by her bold brushwork and varied use of color, sort of animates these otherwise motionless women and very subtly asserts Vermeer’s (and her own) interest in the play of light. Such application, more than anything else, makes me think of the artist’s encounter with the medium of painting, the evidence of which hangs on the gallery walls before me. The evidence of a dialogue/encounter with Vermeer, with paint and canvas, with beauty, with the noble goal of fulfillment, and most of all a dialogue about ‘the art of painting’. These spatterings of vibrant colors and forms, onto the surface of pre-used cartons (with peculiar shapes and folds) is almost accidental in appearance or composed rather naturally, reflect the reality of that experience/encounter, in a way which enables me to recognize it as extremely ‘genuine’. And that is rare; it is not too often when one experiences such moments; the pleasure of enjoying a painting (both; the object and the act of painting), of enjoying looking/viewing. The work (perhaps) comprises not an idea but a commitment, so fundamental, without which this body of work is unimaginable.

 A simple and beautiful display of love and passion, and that is all what art sometimes needs!