"One can spend a lifetime mediating a single properly lit window. Harold Bloom suggests seeking your shadow, and shying away from the reflected light."
Am I right in reading the first of these two sentences as "One can spend a lifetime meditating on a single properly lit window"?
With regard to the second sentence, I'm guessing that Harold Bloom means something along the lines of "do your own thing instead of imitating some great person from the past" -- is that correct? If so, how should this advice be connected with what you're writing about in this essay? Wouldn't Vermeer be the relevant great person from the past? Or do you see this Danish painter as a great person from the past whose light a person of today might be tempted to reflect?
PS. Sorry, there was a typo, I meant meditating not mediating. Drawing the same window is like saying the same words of a prayer. A form of meditation.
A single properly lit window means that art and beauty is by definition minimalistic. It is by definition a reduction. By reflected light I mean that you seek your light, not the light reflected by the prior artist or people whose library is better to be burned. See the original quote from Bloom.
Hammershøi is obscure today. But obviously very significant in my view. Hammershøi is unique in his style. But many do compare him to Vermeer.
You are correct about Whistler, Palin in the BBC film about Hammershøi said that he made a pilgrimage to London to see "his hero" Whistler, he knocked on the door and when no one answered, Hammershøi was too shy to come again.
Excellent!
Please explain these two sentences near the end:
"One can spend a lifetime mediating a single properly lit window. Harold Bloom suggests seeking your shadow, and shying away from the reflected light."
Am I right in reading the first of these two sentences as "One can spend a lifetime meditating on a single properly lit window"?
With regard to the second sentence, I'm guessing that Harold Bloom means something along the lines of "do your own thing instead of imitating some great person from the past" -- is that correct? If so, how should this advice be connected with what you're writing about in this essay? Wouldn't Vermeer be the relevant great person from the past? Or do you see this Danish painter as a great person from the past whose light a person of today might be tempted to reflect?
PS. Sorry, there was a typo, I meant meditating not mediating. Drawing the same window is like saying the same words of a prayer. A form of meditation.
A single properly lit window means that art and beauty is by definition minimalistic. It is by definition a reduction. By reflected light I mean that you seek your light, not the light reflected by the prior artist or people whose library is better to be burned. See the original quote from Bloom.
Hammershøi is obscure today. But obviously very significant in my view. Hammershøi is unique in his style. But many do compare him to Vermeer.
This is excellent. Thank you!
You are correct about Whistler, Palin in the BBC film about Hammershøi said that he made a pilgrimage to London to see "his hero" Whistler, he knocked on the door and when no one answered, Hammershøi was too shy to come again.
The film is pop-underwhelming but has some interesting info. It needs a voice of an artist not an actor.