Tim's Vermeer
Directed by: Teller
Starring: Tim Jenison, Penn Jillette, David Hockney, Martin Mull, Teller
Documentary
Starring: Tim Jenison, Penn Jillette, David Hockney, Martin Mull, Teller
Documentary
If you use technology beyond a canvas and a paintbrush, is your product still considered art? For some purists, a great painting must be drawn freehand from divine inspiration; anything less may be considered cheating. For others, incorporating equipment to aid in color selection, shading, and fine detail is completely acceptable. Surprisingly, this discussion is not limited to modern painters who have access to cutting-edge technology to help them create art that would be impossible without mechanical gadgets. Some painters from hundreds of years ago are posited to have used a camera obscura or other optical devices, including the Dutchman Johannes Vermeer.
Active in the mid-1600s, Vermeer is known for his exceptional bright colors and fascinating incorporation of light in his paintings, most of which are set in his own house in Delft, Holland depicting domestic activities. The painting analyzed in Tim’s Vermeer is The Music Lesson showing a girl receiving harpsichord instruction from a teacher. Tim Jenison, a self-proclaimed inventor made extremely wealthy from video imaging software, is the eponymous Tim who is enchanted with Vermeer’s paintings. He proclaims Vermeer’s art goes beyond the use of bright pigments and the superior depiction of light; Vermeer’s paintings are photorealistic.
Analyzing color saturations and minute detail in the painting, Tim proposes with almost certainty that Vermeer used a camera obscura (dark room) where a lens projects the light from the room onto a dark wall. Since this enters the technological realm, Tim hypothesizes if he recreates the exact room, lens, and paints Vermeer used, he can produce an exact replica of The Music Lesson. Tim is not a painter. He has not been to school and it is not even a hobby. Spending an enormous amount of time, money, and effort, Tim uses a San Antonio warehouse to build the same tile floor, latticed windows, and wooden harpsichord drawn so long ago.
Produced by magicians Penn and Teller (narrated by Penn, directed by Teller), who happen to be old friends of Tim, the documentary sets up the quest and then carefully follows the room’s construction, the discovery of the correct mirror set up and methodology, and Tim’s interactions with some of the world’s most knowledgeable Vermeer experts. Trips are made to London to consult the wise old art historians and an attempt is made to see the original painting now located inside Buckingham Palace.
Tim’s Vermeer is mostly engrossing. You do not require any previous knowledge of either Vermeer or of the art and science of painting; you just need the open-mindedness to learn and the patience to watch paint dry. Not really, but there are frequent time-lapsed montages watching Tim laboriously paint what he observes from a mirror. Also, do not confuse this with the other Vermeer film you may remember, Girl with a Pearl Earring. That 2003 film is a fictional account and interpretation of another Vermeer painting; a wonderful story, but nothing to do with Tim and his thesis.
The film chooses not to try and answer any of the questions it unearths concerning the implications of an amateur sitting down and faithfully reproducing what is considered a classic masterpiece. Is Vermeer now ‘less’ of a painter if he used mirrors or if a layman can accurately copy his work? He could not have been the only painter using mirrors, but is there now an asterisk by his name just as there is beside baseball players suspected of steroid use? That is up for the audience to decide once they get a good look at Tim’s creation.
Active in the mid-1600s, Vermeer is known for his exceptional bright colors and fascinating incorporation of light in his paintings, most of which are set in his own house in Delft, Holland depicting domestic activities. The painting analyzed in Tim’s Vermeer is The Music Lesson showing a girl receiving harpsichord instruction from a teacher. Tim Jenison, a self-proclaimed inventor made extremely wealthy from video imaging software, is the eponymous Tim who is enchanted with Vermeer’s paintings. He proclaims Vermeer’s art goes beyond the use of bright pigments and the superior depiction of light; Vermeer’s paintings are photorealistic.
Analyzing color saturations and minute detail in the painting, Tim proposes with almost certainty that Vermeer used a camera obscura (dark room) where a lens projects the light from the room onto a dark wall. Since this enters the technological realm, Tim hypothesizes if he recreates the exact room, lens, and paints Vermeer used, he can produce an exact replica of The Music Lesson. Tim is not a painter. He has not been to school and it is not even a hobby. Spending an enormous amount of time, money, and effort, Tim uses a San Antonio warehouse to build the same tile floor, latticed windows, and wooden harpsichord drawn so long ago.
Produced by magicians Penn and Teller (narrated by Penn, directed by Teller), who happen to be old friends of Tim, the documentary sets up the quest and then carefully follows the room’s construction, the discovery of the correct mirror set up and methodology, and Tim’s interactions with some of the world’s most knowledgeable Vermeer experts. Trips are made to London to consult the wise old art historians and an attempt is made to see the original painting now located inside Buckingham Palace.
Tim’s Vermeer is mostly engrossing. You do not require any previous knowledge of either Vermeer or of the art and science of painting; you just need the open-mindedness to learn and the patience to watch paint dry. Not really, but there are frequent time-lapsed montages watching Tim laboriously paint what he observes from a mirror. Also, do not confuse this with the other Vermeer film you may remember, Girl with a Pearl Earring. That 2003 film is a fictional account and interpretation of another Vermeer painting; a wonderful story, but nothing to do with Tim and his thesis.
The film chooses not to try and answer any of the questions it unearths concerning the implications of an amateur sitting down and faithfully reproducing what is considered a classic masterpiece. Is Vermeer now ‘less’ of a painter if he used mirrors or if a layman can accurately copy his work? He could not have been the only painter using mirrors, but is there now an asterisk by his name just as there is beside baseball players suspected of steroid use? That is up for the audience to decide once they get a good look at Tim’s creation.
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