It was really good to be back at Wysing yesterday for Spike Bucklow’s talk on the metaphor of the mirror, in its widest sense, in European painting traditions. Spike is a Conservator at Cambridge’s Hamilton Kerr Institute and so was able to expand on the use of metaphor and symbolism in relation to materials; how they reflect time and place. He took us on a journey from early cosmology through to Titian via Jan Van Eyck, talking about how a ‘successful’ painting is achieved when symbolism and materials work as one in order to achieve a completeness. This was articulated through an early icon work, where blue paint was first created by grinding lapis lazuli and then heavily used in the painting because it was thought that praying via the medium of lapis lazuli, a material that symbolizes calmness and wisdom, made prayers more likely to be heard (this is a very clunky and simplistic summary). It was fascinating though how material was the way to manifest meaning, pre 17th century – I think this is something we need to expand on in a future talk. During questioning at the end of Spike’s presentation the notion of completeness or oneness was expanded further and it became evident that a lot of us were thinking the same thing – that contemporary art more often than not seeks out flaws, uncertainty and paradox rather than, or perhaps in order to, achieve coherence. I caught Gerhard Richter’s exhibition at the Pompidou Centre last week, having seen the first version of it at Tate Modern last year, and it really struck me again how he has actively sought out uncertainty and contradiction throughout his working life and transformed that uncertainty into complete, singular, works. Maybe that’s what it means to be contemporary; to be able to transform uncertainty.

Tags: hamilton kerr institute |  gerhard richter |  the mirror |