Rembrandt’s Original Mickey Mouse at The Frick, NYC

Dear Talkinggrid Readers,

Prepare yourself to see the impossible, to see that LIFE folds in upon itself and unexpected is miraculously present in a painting, we thought we all knew, a “Tronie” (a theatrical portrait of a typecast person in exotic dress, costume, or other status symbol representing the luxury flowing into the Netherlands at a time when colonialism was thriving and the Dutch were strident cultural leaders) of a man with a Feathered Beret (c. 1635) by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Unless you live in the Netherlands, where the paintings are expected to return, soon, after a two-year round of international exhibitions, you will have to fly to New York, New York, wait on line, or purchase a membership in order to verify this surprising find.  A painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, on view at the Frick, has a marvelous secret to reveal, today!

The secret was always there.  Yet it only makes sense now.  It was painted hundreds of years ago.  Yet, it was not relevant, until now.

You must go, now, because the work in question is on loan and will only be in New York City until January 19, 2014.  It is well worth it to do so because the work that has received so much attention yet held its secret, before the public eye for over a century of potential for discovery.  By heading to the museum today YOU might be ONE of the lucky ones that sees what is invisible until now, a startling discovery will share the secret of Rembrandt’s clairvoyant genius, because YOU read: www.talkinggrid.com.

The fact that the painting is famous and has received countless visits and exists in reproductions: books, postcards, calendars, and posters; yet it has kept its mystery until last week when investigative art person, Frau Kolb tripped into it.  She may be the first person to notice this astounding POP cultural reference in a work made centuries ago.  (This startling find, by the way, is a glaring case of people seeing what they want to see and ignoring what they don’t consider relevant in art and life.)

At the Frick, The Metropolitan, The Museum of Modern ART, The Philadelphia Museum of ART and LACMA other world-class museums Frau Kolb observes: among the milling crowds that throw a glance here, there, and move to the next; turning ART into pig’s swill, one masterpiece after another, is regarded and dismissed before a “Mona Lisa Salad,” is consumed lovelessly in the cafeteria, without seeing the secrets that are on display it becomes abundantly clear the vast majority of people DO NOT use their senses to accurately take in information.  Frau kolb suspects that most people are rarely ever present enough in their own lives to really enjoy looking at the art or facts before them; being in a rush is the norm, even at the museum, which is designed to invite a certain amount of reflection, thought… (and the two-hour timed tickets don’t help).  Any day of any week one can witness the thousands filing by painting(s), which command a life-time of reverent study, checking off  “the experience,” on a dead list of Important Art, with little more than a nod in the direction of potentially LIFE altering art work.

It is reported by art scholar, James Elkins, that visitors spend, “an average of fifteen seconds,” before even the greatest works of art in world-class museums.   This fact alone may explain why this lowly blog is where YOU deeply interested and focused art thinkers, regular readers of this, “alternative ART news blog,” have the privilege of sharing in the bounty of ART history’s never-ending splendor and learning the great secret to be seen in a painting by everyone’s favorite, or at least the most famous, of the Dutch Masters.

OK, now, let’s stay focused and reveal this strange and inexplicable discovery.    First, however, the steps that led to that discovery.   Without going too far into it.  My first art-history professor, the one that had the singular honor of being the provider of the standard introductory class, which ALL Columbia University students must take in order to graduate, was a Prof. Benjamin Binstock, an innovative Rembrandt scholar, author, and passionate art-mind.  His energetic understanding, enthusiasm, and verve inspired me to take art history rather than studio art as my main focus in my college studies.   He also sparked an interest in Old Masters in general, Rembrandt in particular, while informing incoming students that, “Cindy Sherman is the greatest living artist.”  Professor Binstock was informed and engaging, a catalyst to learning.

Next step in putting two and a mystery number together was taken twenty years later and across the country, in “ever-sunny,” Los Angeles California investing time at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles during the retrospective exhibition of Llyn Foulke’s work.  If I hadn’t visited the Foulkes exhibition at the Hammer Museum at least three times, putting in hours on top of a lifetime of careful looking with several of the contemporary master’s assemblages and paintings I wouldn’t have had my eye sharpened and my critical thinking-skills-propeller cap ON when I saw explosive yet inexplicable time-warp truth in a painting from the magical seventeenth century.

There are more, quirky and curious steps involved in the tango of learning and coming to see NEW in Old and that the connections between the two are deeper than any warm hole or cosmic wormhole, both being The Source.  Really…

At the Frick I made a sketch of the Rembrandt in order to confirm that what I thought I was seeing was really there.  AND then I asked the artsy looking man standing next to me if he saw it.  He was astounded.  He confirmed my findings.

I went and bought the exhibition catalogue.  Delighted.

Here is the sketch:

 Here is the painting:

“Tronie” of a Man with a Feathered Beret (c. 1635)

Now, you be the judge, but be sure to click the link to my earlier writings on Foulkes work IF you really want to get, to OWN this queer and yet delicious observation, with me.

Thank you,

Frau Kolb

The Man wearing a grand sombrero with feathers in the foreground hides a “truth of our time,” in the background.  The real gift we give ourselves when we make a practice of LOOKING again.  Looking with love at what we think we know, questioning and rethinking, what we have seen before.