Contemplating genius

“Vermeer: Woman Writing a Letter With Her Maid,’’ by Joe Fig, in his show “Contemplating Vermeer,’’ at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art through Jan. 11.

The museum explains:

“In 2023, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam hosted a monumental exhibition of Johannes Vermeer, showcasing 28 of the 35 masterpieces attributed to the enigmatic Dutch painter. Drawing on his own visit to this historic show, artist Joe Fig created a body of new paintings. In these works, featured in ‘Contemplating Vermeer,’ Fig not only pays homage to the 17th-Century painter’s mastery of light, color, and verisimilitude, but also reflects on the aesthetic experience in the Rijksmuseum’s galleries. Expanding on his decade-long ‘Contemplation’ series, he captures his subjects—artworks and their viewers—and their surroundings, exploring how people engage with or contemplate artworks in public spaces.’’

The big dripper

 

"Jack the Dripper,'' by JOE FIG (courtesy of the artist and the Tierney Gardarin Gallery, New York), at the Bruce Museum, in Greenwich, Conn., in the current "Artists' Studios: Small-Scale Views'' show.

The "Jack'' here is, of course, famed abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, whose violent alcoholism would have been denounced by the quiet and dignified alcoholics living in the famous rich precincts  of Greenwich.