Mona
Lisa and
Salvator Mundi. We know he was fascinated by the anatomical effects of crucifixion. We also know that the optical science underlying photography was more or less understood in Renaissance Europe and during the Arabic Golden Age Ibn al-Haytham’s
Book of Optics had been translated into Latin by the early 13th century and that alchemists knew its basic chemistry. And really, who other than Leonardo would have been as capable of creating such an enigmatic and technically inexplicable image?
Most art historians and critics attribute the first fixed photograph either to Nicéphore Niépce or Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, but in his book
âWhat is your truth?â: The selfie project celebrating Melbourneâs many faces
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Credit:Paul Jeffers
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Melbourneâs streets have this week been transformed into open-air galleries displaying works from some of photographyâs biggest local and international names for the PHOTO 2021 festival. But the hundreds of black and white portraits pasted up in Federation Square are largely works of local amateurs. Photography, after all, belongs to everyone in the Instagram age.
These self-portraits form Inside Out, a global art project started in 2011 by French street artist JR, which has so far featured more than 250,000 participants in 129 countries, the world s largest participatory art project. In each country, participants have submitted portraits around themes such as diversity, hope and climate change.
On Books – Restless Enterprise: The Art and Life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex by Katherine Manthorne Bruce Weber
Restless Enterprise: The Art and Life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex, by Katherine
Manthorne (Oakland: University
of California Press, 2020). 352 pp.,
color and b/w illus.
Art historian Katherine E. Manthorne has written a welcome addition to recent studies devoted to American women artists and cultural figures of the past two centuries. The flurry of such publications is especially noteworthy as we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, earning women the right to vote after a long struggle.