CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Rembrandt’s Changing Impressions

Exhibition: 9 September - 12 December 2015

Information from the museum, 24 September 2014

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University in the City of New York is pleased to announce the exhibition, Rembrandt’s Changing Impressions. The exhibition will be on view from September 9 through December 12, 2015, and is curated by Robert Fucci, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, Columbia University, and David E. Finley Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA). Fucci is working with esteemed specialist, Dr. David Freedberg.

Rembrandt manipulated his copperplates in unprecedented ways in order to achieve an image that was often in flux. This extraordinary presentation will highlight some of the most noteworthy changes that Rembrandt made to his prints over the course of his career by presenting approximately 20 of his most dramatically changed images, displaying each in multiple impressions, side by side. Visitors will have the unique opportunity to examine and compare their range, power, and nuance.

Rembrandt’s many state changes indicate that these were not mere working proofs, but rather finished products in their own right. Due to recent developments in Rembrandt print research (such as the landmark publication of the New Hollstein catalogue) we now have a much clearer idea of which changes Rembrandt effected himself. This exhibition will be comprised of only seventeenth-century impressions from the artist’s lifetime, drawn from significant U.S. collections, in an effort to reflect upon the artist’s intentions. Loans are confirmed from Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library & Museum, New York Public Library, Baltimore Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others.

This is the first time in over 40 years that such an exhibition has been undertaken, and the new scholarship contributes much to a reinvigorated discussion. A publication reproducing all the works will make these images broadly available, and a symposium timed to the IFPDA Print Fair will foster a scholarly conversation.

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