Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting [Hardcover]

Siri Hustvedt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2005

From Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling novel What I Loved, comes this inspired collection of essays on painting. Here, Hustvedt concentrates her narrative gifts on the works of such masters as Francisco de Goya, Jan Vermeer, Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin, Gerhard Richter, and Joan Mitchell.

Hustvedt is concerned with the very act of looking and the limitless rewards to be gleaned from sustained, careful attention. Unlike film and books, which progress over time, "Painting is there all at once," she writes, it is only with patience and repeated viewings that elusive meanings present themselves.

Through her own personal experiences, Hustvedt is able to reveal things until now hidden in plain sight: an egg like detail in Vermeer's Woman with a Pearl Necklace and the many hidden self-portraits in Goya's series of drawings, Los Caprichos, as well as in his infamous painting The Third of May. Most importantly, these essays exhibit the passion, thrill, and sheer pleasure of bewilderment a work of art can produceif you simply take the time to look.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These wonderful essays capture Hustvedt's thoughtful, intensely personal and aesthetically charged responses to art. At first, Hustvedt's choice of artists seems random or disjointed, but it becomes apparent that her work is driven by a deeper logic that unites these painters: still life, the power of dreams and the struggle to truly see the world-she finds a profound engagement with these themes in each of the artists she treats, whether it be the cityscape-bottles of Giorgio Morandi, the vertiginous monsters of Goya, the abstract masses of Joan Mitchell or Gerhard Richter's ghostly photo paintings. Hustvedt writes with few technical or academic trappings, and the effect is that of an intelligent, articulate art-lover speaking about paintings she has looked at and thought about for a lifetime. As with Montaigne's essays or Proust's criticism, this expository character is hard-won. Hustvedt is well versed in the theory and scholarship on these artists, something she keeps below the surface in all but the last two pieces. This delightful book will interest anyone who enjoys art, whether casually or professionally, and Hustvedt's elegant prose makes for an engrossing read even for readers unfamiliar with the art under consideration.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

...a meditation on seeing that somehow avoids the pretensions and obviousness of such an exercise. -- Newsday, Nov 13, 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; A Winterhouse Ed edition (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568985185
• ISBN-13: 978-1568985183
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #966,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Siri Hustvedt is the author of four novels, The Sorrows of an American, What I Loved, The Blindfold, and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, as well as two collections of essays, A Plea for Eros and Mysteries of the Rectangle. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Paul Auster.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hustvedt Gives the Paintings Back to Us, March 17, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting (Hardcover)

Siri Hustvedt is a fine writer and an even finer essayist. She is able to communicate volumes of historical and observational information while reassuring the reader that what she is sharing is not THE way of approaching her subject, but rather merely HER musings about art and the concept of the meaning of art. It is a relaxing manner of writing, allowing the reader to learn from her inquiries and research, yet encouraging the reader to personally move in front of a painting and pause long enough to experience that frozen moment in time surrounded safely by a 'Rectangle' of frame, and discover the personal mysteries that travel from the eye to the mind and heart.

After a typically personal declaration of an introduction that boldly suggests that each of us is as fair a judge of art as she or as art historians, Hustvedt sets out to explore different artists and share her own confrontations with their art, and in doing so she describes in the most sincere manner a means of art appreciation for the beginner to the devotee. Beginning with a student exposure to a small painting, 'The Tempest' by Giorgione, Hustvedt writes about how memory plays a role in the way we respond to art. From there she examines her own reaction to Vermeer's 'Woman with a Pearl Necklace', a painting that for years has befuddled art historians. But in this encounter with the Vermeer, Hustvedt finds a recreation of the Annunciation and compares Vermeer's mysterious painting about the concept of light from some special place announcing the otherworldly pregnancy of a young girl. It is stunning writing.

Goya has long drawn Hustvedt's attention, especially to the late work 'Los Caprichos' which she examines in detail, sharing her own interpretation about the influence of Goya's health: Goya probably suffered from Meniere's disease - inner ear dysfunction causing tinnitus, dizziness, vomiting, vertigo, abnormal eye movements, and deafness. But she does not assign the total impact of 'Los Caprichos' to that sickness. Instead she languishes about Goya's response to the Church, to delusions and illogical monsters, to bizarre depictions of bodily functions, and yet each of these aspects pulsates positively within the series that makes the set of etchings one of the great art works of history.

Hustvedt also discusses the still life paintings through history to the present, including a brilliant essay on Morandi and one on Joan Mitchell, and closes her set of art lessons/aids with a discussion of Gerhard Richter. Each of these extended essays are accompanied by color art reproductions of the works discussed and the design of the book is an artwork in and of itself. As evidence of Siri Hustvedt's dignity this book includes a Colophon that attributes the design and typography of the volume to William Drental and Don Whelan of Winterhouse Studios, Falls Village, Connecticut. It is a quiet homage to the art of book making that is entirely in keeping with the first class presentation of this beautiful and important book. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 06