Big Picture
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Big Picture, Tim Lowly © 1997, 120" x 120", tempera on panel. Private collection, Seoul, Korea.
This painting was part of an exhibition at Art Space Seoul in Korea. It was the first of several large paintings I have made where I intentionally engaged the convention of “the big picture” as the territory of politically or religiously charged spectacle. In size Big Picture, references the painting Las Meninas by Velázquez: a painting that in itself subverts convention. In Las Meninas, Velázquez’s most important painting as the court painter, he chose to include and emphasize the representation people who were in service in the court (including himself) while relegating the king and queen to a reflection in the mirror. Implicitly, but not insignificantly the viewers of the painting are standing where the reflected royalty should (according to the mirror) be standing. In a parallel manner the painting Big Picture,’s use of a rather compelling perspective (particularly for anyone who is in the room with the actual painting) situates the viewer of the painting in the painting. Let me rephrase this latter point: the way this work is functioning is such as to place the viewer into the world of the painting. As such to the extent that the painting is spectacle it is not one that allows or encourages a passive, removed observation.
For the exhibition catalogue curator Soo-Jin Park wrote this essay.
Assistance with the production of this painting was provided by interns Dean Olson Ramos, Deborah Hendriksma and Kim So-Jeong.
Prints available at: timlowly.imagekind.com/
Big Picture
view very large
Big Picture, Tim Lowly © 1997, 120" x 120", tempera on panel. Private collection, Seoul, Korea.
This painting was part of an exhibition at Art Space Seoul in Korea. It was the first of several large paintings I have made where I intentionally engaged the convention of “the big picture” as the territory of politically or religiously charged spectacle. In size Big Picture, references the painting Las Meninas by Velázquez: a painting that in itself subverts convention. In Las Meninas, Velázquez’s most important painting as the court painter, he chose to include and emphasize the representation people who were in service in the court (including himself) while relegating the king and queen to a reflection in the mirror. Implicitly, but not insignificantly the viewers of the painting are standing where the reflected royalty should (according to the mirror) be standing. In a parallel manner the painting Big Picture,’s use of a rather compelling perspective (particularly for anyone who is in the room with the actual painting) situates the viewer of the painting in the painting. Let me rephrase this latter point: the way this work is functioning is such as to place the viewer into the world of the painting. As such to the extent that the painting is spectacle it is not one that allows or encourages a passive, removed observation.
For the exhibition catalogue curator Soo-Jin Park wrote this essay.
Assistance with the production of this painting was provided by interns Dean Olson Ramos, Deborah Hendriksma and Kim So-Jeong.
Prints available at: timlowly.imagekind.com/