Narrative, Design principles and Materials

Narrative: A shelter for an old, deaf artist only with one brush for painting.

Design principles inspired from the painting:
As the project outline described, this project is to design a container for a certain activity. Maybe it is for a group of people maybe for a single person. My design will follow Vermeer’s idea which is a sense of hidden intentions. Art and architecture are very similar. Vermeer’s Art of painting can be suggestive; also the architectural design will be meaningful. Some architectural elements won’t be directly indicated. Instead they will be indirectly represented to the audiences. On the other hand the building itself can speak, it not only speaks out its own function as a building, but also tells the story of the people activate in this building. According to my narrative, the building will be consisted with a few studios provide different view, and centre gallery and a tower. People can visit the building gallery, and it will provide a sense of uncertainty. Similar to Vermeer’s painting, different people will have their own interpretation of the building itself. And the building itself will be a contradiction. Same as the artist, old, deaf and only one brush, it is uncompleted also unperfected, but somehow he is perfect, it is because he is rich in his mind, he has rich imagination.

Key words:
Order, Contradiction, incomplete, imperfect, Symbolism, Allegory.

Materials: Concrete, glass, timber.

Explanations of the materials chosen: Concrete and glass will be functioned as the building veneers, timber truss and beam will act as the main structure component, some cases concrete with steal structure will appear in the building design as well.

Architectural interpretation

The painting is well ordered. The chair in the foreground, the heavy theatre curtain, the table and the Dutch map on the background, all of them provide a sense of space. It layered the drawing into different distances in order to emphasize the spatial relationship. The Vertical cracks on the map, chairs, diagonal pattern marble floor and the horizontal beams at the top of the drawing are strongly contrasted. Also the heavy curtain and white texture on the artist’s cloth balanced with the coming light from the hidden windows on the right hand side. All of above reinforces the importance of order in the art work. Also this is unquestionably the most dense of Vermeer’s works in terms of hidden intentions. He himself gave it the tile The Art of Painting and what we have is a kind of personal interpretation, or confession, or reading his art and himself.

Interpretation

This painting describe an ordinary event happened in an artist’s studio. But it is meaningful, suggestive and allegorical. There are two figures appear in the drawing. The artist dressed fancifully. It indicates his occupation as an artist. On the other hand, nothing here is reminiscent of a studio: there is no palette, no paint, no tools of the trade’s except the brush and the mahl-stick. Thus the painter – often taken as being Vermeer himself - is wearing timeless clothes and working in a timeless place, a theatre set. Referring to his new premises in 1661’s work, he was directly concerned with the architectural and decorative choices involved and wanted painting to be given real symbolic emphasis. He decided not to show himself a work in his studio, but to create a kind of Allegory of painting – or more simply. Vermeer's source is a reference in Cesare Ripa's Iconology. Rpia describes Clio as ‘a maiden with a laurel garland, who holes a trumpet in her right hand and with the left a book.’ Hence every single object appears in the picture is suggestive. The fat book is doubtless a “lives of the artists”, the laurel wreath and the trumpet may well symbolize Fame and the book History; for Vermeer these emblems were part of the painter destiny. Also the atmosphere is one of utter serenity and peace as Vermeer gives his lesion in wisdom: painting is not a frenetic business, and should jolt neither the eye nor the mind.

The description of the art work

The painting describes a story of a painter is drawing a young lady who wears a crown of laurel leaves and holds her trumpet and book. She stands motionless, her downcast eyes turned towards an oak table, on which there are large manuscript book and some drapes and an oversized mask, the edge of which is just visible on the left of the detail shown.

The long-haired artist, who turns his head to study his model, probably represents Vermeer. He is wearing a floppy velvet beret, slitted jacket and breeches, very similar to the fanciful attire worn by the grinning observer in The Procuress.

The picture should not be regarded as a literal depiction of an artist’s studio; the elegant room has few signs of the clutter that would be expected there. A brush, barely visible, and a maulstick are shown, but there is no sign of any paints, although presumably there is a palette hidden behind the artist’s left shoulder. It is curious that the artist should begin the figure by painting the laurel wreath, rather than the face; also, a maulstick would normally be unnecessary when there was litter paint on the canvas. All this is a reminder that The Art of Painting is an allegory.

Project 2:

The Art of Painting

Parti and Poche drawings

Enclosure

Circulation

Program

Structure

Geometry

Photos on the submission day

Photos from Studio Light