Omnium

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

The Reverse of a Framed Painting


Trompe-l'œil: El revers d'una pintura emmarcada (Cornelis_Norbertus_Gijsbrechts - 1668/72) RELATS CONJUNTS

For quite some time, at least 36 minutes, the group had discussed what a viewer might expect if Gijsbrecht's frame were reversed.

"Anyway, I think a picture dies after a few years like the man who painted it."

"Hear, hear, Duchamp!" Manzoni smiled. "Gijsbrecht by now is up here for about 350 years, but his "Bagsiden af et indrammet maleri" can still be admired at the National Gallery of Denmark.

"Papperlapapp", intoned Schönberg, "If it is art it is not for all and if it is for all it is no art."

Braque laughed. "Arnold, you know very well that art is meant to disturb."

"Quite, Georges", Picasso nodded, "moreover, art is the lie that enables us to realise the truth."

"Excuse me, Pablo, but that's shit!" stated Conte Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiol.

"Didn't you say the same to your son regarding his artwork?" asked Petrus.

"Yes, but only to inspire him."

"That's right." Piero Manzoni smiled. "My father inspired me to fill 90 tin cans with 30 grams of my faeces originally to be valued according to their equivalent weight in gold, thus $37 each in 1961. In August 2016, at an art auction in Milan, one tin sold for €275,000."

"Oh god", sighed Pascal, "imagination – it is that deceitful part in man, that mistress of error and falsity."

"Chauvi!" hissed Nin. "Why mistress and not man of error and falsity?"

"You won't change him after 350 years, Anaïs." Nietzsche stroked his beloved grey horse. "Blaise will never be able to give birth to a dancing star. He has no chaos in his heart."