Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 17, 2003|Volume 31, Number 15|Two-Week Issue

"Vermeer's 'The Music Lesson' with the Figures Removed" is one of the works by George Deem that is on view in the Jonathan Edwards College exhibit.

Artist's reinventions of Vermeer
masterpieces are showcased

A contemporary artist's reinventions of a 17th-century master's works are featured in a new exhibition at Jonathan Edwards College (JE).

"George Deem: Paintings of Vermeer Interiors" includes 19 images based on works by Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), a Dutch genre artist known for his detailed depictions of figures in carefully composed interiors. In these paintings, Deem often has stripped the figures from Vermeer's works or focused on a specific detail, while keeping the style and the interior of the original.

Reworking the work of the masters has been a focus of Deem's art for over 30 years. In addition to Vermeer, he has revisited works by Matisse, Manet, Hopper and others.

Critic Peter Frank has said of the artist's work: "Deem has been quoting from famous artworks of the past ... not copying other people's paintings, but making paintings of them. In these he re-examines and incorporates all the droll cliches, misunderstandings and personal reinterpretations that have accrued to well-known pictures since they became well-known."

Deem received his training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, including the 1964 exhibition "Four Painters" at the Yale University Art Gallery. His works are in numerous public and corporate collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

"George Deem: Paintings of Vermeer Interiors" is the latest in a series of exhibitions hosted by JE master Gary Haller, the Becton Professor of Engineering and Applied Science.

Haller writes in the introduction to the exhibition catalogue: "Some of the Jonathan Edwards College exhibitions have resulted from my discovery of the work of an artist and a subsequent personal relationship with the artist ... that has led me to want to live with their art in the Master's House and show it to others. In the case of George Deem, it has worked in reverse, i.e., first the artist and then his work. George was kind enough to make a pilgrimage from New York to see an exhibition in the Master's House. This led to our correspondence, which resulted in my visiting him and his studio and then learning about his art. ...

"As it happens," Haller continues, "Jonathan Edwards College has one of the world's experts on Vermeer, J. Michael Montias, as a Fellow. Michael's book, 'Vermeer and his Milieu: A Web of Social His-tory,' 1989, remains the standard reference on the life and times of Vermeer." He added that he hoped to arrange to have Montias speak about Vermeer at a future master's tea.

"George Deem: Paintings of Vermeer Interiors" opened on Jan. 16 with a reception for the artist and a talk titled "Responding to Vermeer" by Walter Liedtke, curator of European paintings at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibit will continue through March 16 at the JE master's house, 70 High St. It is open most Thursdays or by appointment. For more information, call (203) 432-0356.

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