Persuasive Visions:
17th Century Dutch and Flemish Masterworks and Contemporary Reflections
June 15 to September 15, 2013
 Thomas Ruff Portrait (Isabelle Graw), 1988 chromogenic print Collection of Vancouver Art Gallery, Acquisition Fund 
Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn Portrait of a Woman, undated oil on panel Collection of Vancouver Art Gallery, Founders’ Fund |
Painting in the Netherlands and Flanders enjoyed an exceptional variety
and richness in the seventeenth century. A
robust economy, international trade and a
prosperous middle class supported a busy
art market, including major painters that
painted for the market. Several genres-
among them portraiture, still life, landscape
and marinescape-dominated the painting
of this period. Persuasive Visions incorporates works from the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery and The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, with important loans from a private collection. These are exhibited in contrast with works in similar genres by contemporary practitioners, including portrait photographs by Thomas Ruff; a major sculpture, Mouthful (2008), by Liz Magor; Jeff Wall's landscape lightboxes; and a new sculptural installation by Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, which has been commissioned for this presentation. Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Ian Thom, senior curator-historical, with the assistance of The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. |