Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting

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Overview

"In her essay on Giorgione's The Tempest, a painting that has mystified art critics for hundreds of years, Siri Hustvedt reinterprets the canvas as a work about art and voyeurism. While looking at The Third of May, she was astonished to discover that Goya had hidden his own self-portrait in a shadowy corner of his iconic masterwork." More than anything, the essays in Mysteries of the Rectangle display a true passion for art, from the still lifes of Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Giorgio Morandi to the contemporary works of Joan Mitchell and Gerhard
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More About This Book

Overview

"In her essay on Giorgione's The Tempest, a painting that has mystified art critics for hundreds of years, Siri Hustvedt reinterprets the canvas as a work about art and voyeurism. While looking at The Third of May, she was astonished to discover that Goya had hidden his own self-portrait in a shadowy corner of his iconic masterwork." More than anything, the essays in Mysteries of the Rectangle display a true passion for art, from the still lifes of Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Giorgio Morandi to the contemporary works of Joan Mitchell and Gerhard Richter. Hustvedt captures the pleasure found in giving oneself up to the complexities and ambiguities of painting, discovering new subtleties and surprises the longer one takes the time to look.
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
"[Hustvedt} gives you the illusion of seeing as if for the first time works of art that you thought you knew well. After reading her luminous book, most prose about art seems merely perfunctory. The generous publisher has here provided a beautiful, happily affordable publication." - Modern Painters

"Siri Hustvedt possesses a remarkable visual sensibility. Her responses to paintings are both visceral and intellectual....At their best, her essays combine the insights of her intuitive eye with an extensive knowledge of Western painting." - San Francisco Chronicle

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781568986180
  • Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
  • Publication date: 8/28/2006
  • Pages: 204
  • Sales rank: 680,632
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt is a novelist whose books include The Enchantment of Lily Dahl and What I Loved. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Good To Know

In our exclusive interview, Hustvedt shared some fascinating facts about herself with us:

"In the last eight years, my interest in art has become more than a hobby. I've been writing about painting off and on for the last eight years for art magazines."

"American mass media culture, with its celebrities, shopping hysteria, sound bites, formulaic plots, received ideas, and nauseating repetitions, depresses me. I like to watch movies on DVD but on the whole stay away from television and big Hollywood movies, although occasionally something good comes along and I go to see it. I liked both Groundhog Day and The Sixth Sense, for example."

"I enjoy domestic life. Cooking gives me great pleasure, especially if I can chop vegetables slowly and think about what I'm doing and dream a little about this and that. I always have flowers in my house and it makes me happy to arrange them and then look at them when I walk into a room. I love the little garden in the back of my family's brownstone in Brooklyn. Digging out there in the dirt is a joy for me, although by the time August rolls around and my roses have black spot, I need the break winter provides."

"I must say that I also like clothes and always have. When I was younger, I paid more attention to the quirks of fashion. Now I like well-made clothes that suit me and will last beyond a season."

"My greatest pleasure is spending time with my family: my husband and daughter, but also my mother, my three sisters and their families. My father died this year, and I have a growing need to enjoy the people I love most as much as possible."

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    1. Hometown:
      New York, New York
    1. Date of Birth:
      February 19, 1955
    2. Place of Birth:
      Northfield, Minnesota
    1. Education:
      B.A. in history, St. Olaf College; Ph.D. in English, Columbia University

Table of Contents

The pleasures of bewilderment 1
Vermeer's annunciation 11
The man with the red crayon 27
Ghosts at the table 43
Narratives in the body : Goya's Los Caprichos 61
More Goya : "there are no rules in painting" 93
Giorgio Morandi : not just bottles 121
Joan Mitchell : remembering in color 135
Gerhard Richter : why paint? 149
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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 17, 2006

    Hustvedt Gives the Paintings Back to Us

    Siri Hustvedt is a fine writer and an even finer essayist. She is able to communicate volumes of historical and observational information while reassuring the reader that what she is sharing is not THE way of approaching her subject, but rather merely HER musings about art and the concept of the meaning of art. It is a relaxing manner of writing, allowing the reader to learn from her inquiries and research, yet encouraging the reader to personally move in front of a painting and pause long enough to experience that frozen moment in time surrounded safely by a 'Rectangle' of frame, and discover the personal mysteries that travel from the eye to the mind and heart. After a typically personal declaration of an introduction that boldly suggests that each of us is as fair a judge of art as she or as art historians, Hustvedt sets out to explore different artists and share her own confrontations with their art, and in doing so she describes in the most sincere manner a means of art appreciation for the beginner to the devotee. Beginning with a student exposure to a small painting, 'The Tempest' by Giorgione, Hustvedt writes about how memory plays a role in the way we respond to art. From there she examines her own reaction to Vermeer's 'Woman with a Pearl Necklace', a painting that for years has befuddled art historians. But in this encounter with the Vermeer, Hustvedt finds a recreation of the Annunciation and compares Vermeer's mysterious painting about the concept of light from some special place announcing the otherworldly pregnancy of a young girl. It is stunning writing. Goya has long drawn Hustvedt's attention, especially to the late work 'Los Caprichos' which she examines in detail, sharing her own interpretation about the influence of Goya's health: Goya probably suffered from Meniere's disease - inner ear dysfunction causing tinnitus, dizziness, vomiting, vertigo, abnormal eye movements, and deafness. But she does not assign the total impact of 'Los Caprichos' to that sickness. Instead she languishes about Goya's response to the Church, to delusions and illogical monsters, to bizarre depictions of bodily functions, and yet each of these aspects pulsates positively within the series that makes the set of etchings one of the great art works of history. Hustvedt also discusses the still life paintings through history to the present, including a brilliant essay on Morandi and one on Joan Mitchell, and closes her set of art lessons/aids with a discussion of Gerhard Richter. Each of these extended essays are accompanied by color art reproductions of the works discussed and the design of the book is an artwork in and of itself. As evidence of Siri Hustvedt's dignity this book includes a Colophon that attributes the design and typography of the volume to William Drental and Don Whelan of Winterhouse Studios, Falls Village, Connecticut. It is a quiet homage to the art of book making that is entirely in keeping with the first class presentation of this beautiful and important book. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

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