Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
by Vermeer were rare—he
Paintings
only around 35 in all—and
produced
a new one surfaced there was
whenever
frenetic race among interested buyers.
a
quickly, the Museum Boijmans van
Acting
in Rotterdam acquired this newly
Beuningen
masterpiece for a record sum.
discovered
more art museums and collectors
Many
May 1945, shortly after the liberation of
“In
two officers arrived at the studio
Holland,
Han van Meegeren, then just a littleknown
of
Dutch painter and art dealer. The
from the Allied Art Commission,
officers,
responsible for repatriating works of art
were
by the Nazis. They had come about a
looted
discovered among the collection of
painting
Göring: a hitherto unknown canvas
Hermann
the great Johannes Vermeer … Since the
by
had kept detailed records, it had been
Nazis
to trace the sale of the painting back to
easy
Meegeren. Now, they wanted only the
van
of the original owner so that they might
name
his priceless masterpiece. When van
return
refused to name the owner, they
Meegeren
him and charged him with treason. If
arrested
guilty, he faced the death penalty.
found
interchangeably refers to
Wynne
in relation to both artwork
“originality”
artist. Consider the following
and
about originality and knowledge
questions
What is the difference between
1.
as a virtue of the artist (one
originality
them self-proclaimed art expert and
among
second-most powerful man in Nazi
the
Hermann Göring.Frank Wynne,
Germany,
of I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the
author
Century’s Greatest Forger, gives us
Twentieth
rest of this extraordinary story of the most
the
art controversy of the century. The
riveting
is also a rich source of knowledge issues
story
artist was entirely innocent of the charges
The
him, a fact he could easily have
against
But in doing so, he would have to
proved.
to a series of crimes which he had
confess
for decades and which, in five short
plotted
had earned him the equivalent of $60
years
loathed modern art—he thought it
He
and decadent, a passing fad for
childish
which would soon fade. For years
ugliness
had eked out a living painting gloomy
he
of rich patrons in a faux-Rembrandt
portraits
and had winced as he heard his work
style
by his peers. A prominent critic
ridiculed
van Meegeren’s second solo
reviewing
wrote, ‘A gifted technician who
exhibition
made a sort of composite facsimile of
has
Renaissance school, he has every virtue
the
originality’.” (Wynne 2006)
except
van Meegeren was said not to
that
and as a quality of the artwork
possess)
Does originality affect the way we gain
2.
from art?
knowledge
In which ways does the knowledge we
3.
from engaging with an original
gain
differ from engaging with the
work
of an original artist?
work
10
stayed on the market waiting for a Vermeer,
and questions, as explored below.
million. Han van Meegeren was a forger.
For reflection
Problems with originality
(not a copy or reproduction)?
in art.
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