Comments | pharminatrix: It's bright when it doesn't kill.

pharminatrix

It's bright when it doesn't kill.

Jan 20, 2009 19:03

I get in trouble at museums. Not like dragged-away-screaming-in-chains trouble, but a milder sort of angry librarian trouble. "Please step away from the art." I'm not trying to steal or vandalize but I always want to see as much as possible. Now, SAT prep tells us that statements containing "always" or "never" tend to be false, but there I go ( Read more... )

grounds, traditional surface preparations, painting, hide glue, distemper, size, rabbit-skin glue

Comments 16

scottopic January 21 2009, 00:16:27 UTC

It is! :)

who needs Reuters? pharminatrix January 21 2009, 00:25:02 UTC

Stay tuned for "coveting the glue pot" and "still coveting the glue pot."

silentire January 21 2009, 00:33:52 UTC

So when are you distempering?

I don't know. pharminatrix January 21 2009, 00:48:40 UTC

I copied the recipe on a "just in case" basis and also to lodge it more firmly in my brain as a consideration the next time I wander around the Tibetan galleries, or encounter the process in another form. I'm more interested in its relationship to the technology for traditional surface prep (rabbit skin glue size under gesso grounds) and how it extends it by becoming a medium in and of itself.

lhasa7 January 21 2009, 04:31:28 UTC

I seem to remember concluding that a lot of the Tibetan stuff showed various extremes of retouching. I think a lot of icons have been through the mill as well.

pharminatrix January 21 2009, 14:26:33 UTC

Interesting. So what did you gather from that?

lhasa7 January 27 2009, 16:27:41 UTC

That ultimately these folks are focused on the thing being depicted, and the devotional aspect of depiction in general; as opposed to apotheosizing a given particular depiction, as we do here in golden-calf land.

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pharminatrix January 21 2009, 14:06:29 UTC

We should get our own medic-alert bracelets to waggle at museum guards.

That said, I'm pretty impressed with the relaxation and broadmindedness of the Met security staff. They've let me take pictures (no flash) and sketch, hassle-free.

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pharminatrix January 21 2009, 21:17:01 UTC

I had a damn Sharpie out at some point. Not even a blink.

agaitis_byrjun January 21 2009, 08:21:28 UTC

That painting is gorgeous. I love Tibetan art.

pharminatrix January 21 2009, 14:11:55 UTC

I was impressed by the scale of the paintings I saw. They're not, like, Modern-Art-Superstar huge, but they're occasionally life sized. The printed images didn't prepare me for that.