Re-Create

03/11/2015

The Procuress, c.1656, is one of Vermeer's largest paintings. Here, among the characters and the colours, Vermeer has begun to fixate on capturing a moment in time. "Vermeer tried to ensure that the viewer will ultimately fix their gaze on a single point—the palm of the young woman’s hand, in the very centre of the balustrade that bisects the picture, just as it is about to dissolve into the painting—and a single moment—the suitor’s coin about to drop". (from Vermeer, Realm of Light, by Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, available at http://goo.gl/EbWHLI). (c) Vermeer Center Ginza

03/07/2015

Seeing all of Vermeer's works chronologically is one of the benefits of a Re-create exhibition. Next up in the series is Diana and her Nymphs, c.1655-1656, one of three Vermeer paintings in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Although it takes its motif from the world of myth, the depiction of women in quiet reflection was to become a recurring theme as Vermeer matured as an artist.(c) Vermeer Center Ginza

03/06/2015

The real Girl with a Pearl Earring

Have you hung your favorite Vermeer image on the wall at home, like exhibition director Shin-Ichi Fukuoka? Find out what happened when the Mauritshuis -- home of the original Girl with a Pearl Earring -- decided to give this Vermeer super fan a very special experience to celebrate the 2014 museum reopening.

All over the world you'll find images of the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer. But nothing beats the real thing. That's why we like to turn thin...

03/05/2015

Saint Praxedis, painted by Vermeer in 1655, shows the saint caring for the body of a decapitated martyr. Vermeer was still a young artist at this point, struggling to find his own style; this particular image was copied from an earlier work by the Italian Baroque artist Felice Ficherelli. The original was sold by Christie's to an unknown private collector in 2014 for over ten million dollars, but the Re-create sits alongside the rest of Vermeer's oeuvre in the Openhouse Gallery. (c) Vermeer Center Ginza

03/04/2015

All 37 of Vermeer's Works "Re-created" for a New York Exhibition

RE-CREATE NYC 2015 profiled in Hyperallergic today; don't miss this opportunity to "see the master’s paintings as they have not been seen for centuries", open until March 21!

All 37 of Vermeers works, Re-created, will be displayed in a single gallery and as they would have originally appeared, fresh from Vermeer’s brush.

03/01/2015

Vermeer: Realm of Light, by exhibition director Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, has been released in English for the first time to accompany the exhibition. This unique travelogue tells the story of a simple idea: to see all of the extant Vermeer paintings in the galleries where they are permanently housed. The resulting journey takes him on a four year pilgrimage around the world, from art to science and back again, in pursuit of the mysteries of the Master of Light. You can pick up a copy at the exhibition shop or purchase online at Amazon: http://goo.gl/EbWHLI

02/28/2015

RE-CREATE NYC 2015 brings together all thirty-seven Vermeer paintings, allowing you to trace Vermeer's development as an artist. His earliest known work, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, was painted around 1654-65. The painting shows bold use of colour, dynamic brushstrokes, and exquisite balance between movement and stillness. See the life-size, full colour Re-create at the Openhouse Gallery until March 21. ((C) Vermeer Center Ginza. Find the original in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh)

02/26/2015

Yesterday we were delighted to welcome author and Fulbright scholar Laura J. Snyder to film with exhibition director Dr. Fukuoka. Laura's new book, Eye of the Beholder, tells the story of Vermeer and his contemporary Antonie van Leewenhoek in seventeenth century Delft - you can find out more about the relationship between these two men and their shared interest in optical devices at the exhibition too. Laura's book is available to pre-order on Amazon: http://goo.gl/m21eDx

02/25/2015

Day two of the exhibition! We're open everyday from 09:00 until 17:00 at 201 Mulberry Street. As well as thirty seven beautifully rendered life-size Vermeer Re-creates, we have Vermeer-inspired music from award-winning composer Joe Hisaishi, a selection of Vermeer merchandise, and books from exhibition director Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka.

02/25/2015

Introducing Re-Create with Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka

Want to know what Re-create is all about? This video introduces the concept and some of the technology used to bring Vermeer's works alive for a modern-day audience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC1RXYUHr0Q

Re-create: the process of setting masterpieces in motion and in history. In this special essay Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, the man behind Re-create, discusses the...

02/24/2015

RE-CREATE NYC 2015 | Re-Create

RE-CREATE NYC 2015 opens today at the Openhouse Gallery, 201 Mulberry St + 168 Bowery. Come and see all 37 of Vermeer's paintings, re-created in glorious color, in this first international showcase of the smash-hit Japanese exhibition!

Openhouse Gallery 201 Mulberry Street, Soho, New York City 6 train to Spring St N/R/W to Prince St B/D/F/V to Broadway/Lafayette St 09:00-17:00, Monday through Sunday February 24th  March 21st 2015 $10 (adults, students, groups)

02/22/2015

Its All About the Blue...(and so much more!) The Story of Re-create....Part 3

Vermeer seems to have had an understanding that human vision has receptors for just three colors: blue, green, and red. This realization may have been prompted by the work of his contemporary, the father of the microscope scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. Vermeer also appears to have understood that our eyes are more sensitive to blue light than light which is green or red. This led to Vermeer to focus on the color blue; he used lavish quantities of ultramarine, a luxury pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli. He also appears to have realized that our perception of yellow is, in fact, a response to green and red light striking the retina at the same time.

Re-create is a process of turning back the clock digitally, restoring to Vermeer’s ultramarine its original intensity, so faded over the course of 350 years. Re-create also allows us to return yellow pigments, which have degraded and faded over time resulting in a greenish appearance, to their original color and shine. The colors of other pigments have also been adjusted, bringing them closer to how they would have first appeared.

02/20/2015

So Why Re-create? The Story of Re-create ....Part 2

What's the motivation behind "re-creating" an artwork? Dr. Shin-ichi Fukuoka, the man behind the concept, explains: “Re-create” is an attempt to examine the paradox that the translation may become more of an original, or closer to the original, than the real thing. However much you study the real artwork, there are parts which have been lost, which are just gone.

“Re-create” can bring these back". What you see as a result is the canvas as Vermeer painted it: the color, contrast, detail, and light restored to how they would have appeared 350 years ago. This is what I mean when I talk about Re-create as a translation of the original, rather than an imitation of the existing artwork in its existing state. Re-create is a process of creative translation, one which tries to track back to the point and angle of the artwork’s launch, through careful examination of the landing site and those faint traces of trajectory which remain. The real artwork, as it exists today, can never return to its original state. Re-create is an attempt to examine the paradox that the translation can perhaps be closer to the original than the real thing.

02/18/2015

See the Difference? The Story of Re-create…. Part 1

Re-create is not the replication or the imitation of an artwork. Nor is it the process of cleaning or restoration. It is not a contemporary representation of the artwork, nor is it a re-interpretation inspired by the original artwork. “Re” means both “once more, anew” and to “return to a previous state”; the Re-create process achieves both. Re-create is the practice of creating a new artwork, a translation of the original which reflects the wishes and the worldview of the artist.

Led by Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, Japan’s "Re-create Project" has brought together art expertise, scientific analysis, the highest quality materials, and cutting-edge printing technology to turn back the clock on some of the world’s most treasured artworks. The Vermeer paintings which remain today have all degraded over the several centuries since their creation; detail has been lost, color has faded. The damage is irreparable; there is no way to restore the paintings to their original state. And yet it is in this lost detail that the true spirit of Vermeer as an artist lies. Seeing what is there, but has been lost, is the goal of Re-create, and now there is the opportunity to see the master’s paintings as they have not been seen for centuries.

02/16/2015

Here is the first look at our exhibition poster....please share with friends!

02/15/2015

The Story of RE-CREATE NYC 2015: Where it Started….　

Collecting the entire works of Johannes Vermeer in one place has been a long-standing passion for Dr Shin-Ichi Fukuoka. To understand just why, lets hear directly from him:

“The first time I ever saw a real-life Vermeer was right here in New York, in 1988. During a break from my studies, I wandered into the Frick Collection and discovered the three Vermeers within.

Officer and Laughing Girl. The painting hung quietly on the wall. When I saw it, I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. It was so very different from all the paintings I’d seen before. It mesmerized me as no other painting had. Girl Interrupted at Her Music. Another masterpiece, hanging just as unassumingly. It seemed to me that something so obvious in most paintings was resolutely absent here: the ego of the artist.

Vermeer did not try to interpret the world around him. He did not try to endorse any construct of that world. No, all Vermeer ever wanted to do was document the world, exactly as it appeared to him.

Girl Interrupted at Her Music is airy and bright, yet with considered depth; each detail is given equal weight. The light that spills in from the window illuminates both the room and the figures inside it with a characteristic soft glow, throwing almost enough light onto the music score to make the notes legible. This very detail is what gives the composition its photorealism. And this very photorealism is what is so special about Vermeer paintings.

Whichever painting you look at, it is clear that Vermeer was a photographer, before the technology for photography existed. His interpretation is without bias. As a young scientist, trying to document the phenomena of life with as much clarity as possible, as genes and as proteins, I felt an affinity with this unbiased approach.

My encounter in the Frick Collection was the beginning of my journey to see all the Vermeers. It is a journey that has taken me around the world. The more of his paintings I see, the more I become convinced that my first impression of his work as an artist—the feeling that struck me so violently upon stepping into the Frick Collection—was correct. Vermeer was a man obsessed. A man with the mind of a scientist. A man utterly dedicated to a single pursuit.

If you’ve only seen one or two Vermeers, it’s hard to tell what he was trying to do. Line his paintings up in order of composition, however, and things start to become clear. This idea was the spark behind the concept of the Re-create experience: to use state-of-the-art digital printing to bring back Vermeer’s original colors and brushstrokes, then present his entire oeuvre in a single venue.”

02/12/2015

Bring on the 17th century!

Introducing RE-CREATE NYC 2015: Discovering the Life and Works of Johannes Vermeer

Between February 24th and March 21st, the Open House event space in Manhattan’s fashionable Nolita district is about to transform itself into a doorway into 17th century Holland. Visitors to “RE-CREATE NYC 2015” will for the first time in North America be able to view “Re-creations” of all the acknowledged works of Johannes Vermeer, as the master painter himself would have seen them as he put the finishing touches on each of his prized paintings.

After more than 3 years of successful exhibitions throughout Japan, finally New Yorkers will have a chance to be introduced to one of the freshest and most stimulating ways to appreciate the genius of Vermeer. RE-CREATE NYC 2015, is more than just an introduction to the entire works of the master artist in one place: it is an educational experience that guides visitors to better understand the secrets of his technique, his development as an artist, and the mysteries hidden within his works.

Over the coming days as we count down to the exhibition opening we will be using this page to introduce readers to the concept of “Re-creating” art masterpieces, the technologies that have allowed us to turn back the clock for each of Vermeer’s works, and to introduce Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, the driving force behind this new approach to art appreciation. Keep checking back with us, and make sure to head on down to 201 Mulberry St for a fresh perspective on one of the world’s greatest artists.

02/09/2015

RE-CREATE NYC 2015

RE-CREATE NYC 2015

Discovering the Life and Works of Johannes Vermeer
All 37 paintings, re-created in New York for the first time
Directed by Dr.Shin-Ichi Fukuoka


FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 21
OPENHOUSE MULBERRY GALLERY
201 MULBERRY STREET
MAP
MONDAY - SUNDAY / 9AM - 5PM
ADMISSION $10 (ADULTS / STUDENTS / GROUP)
CHILDREN UNDER 12 FREE

PRE-ORDER TICKET
https://squareup.com/market/RecreateNYC

“A Re-create exhibition takes the original works of art and places them in spatial and temporal contexts—I call this a process of setting them in motion and history. Setting the art in this dynamic equilibrium gives us the opportunity to reconsider and reimagine these masterpieces.
Re-create is intended to encourage Vermeer fans all over the world to reawaken their love for his paintings. It aims to bring depth and breadth to our understanding and appreciation of Vermeer.
Re-create is not a process of simple replication or imitation of the original. Instead, it works to complement the original, to supplement our understanding of it. Re-create is my attempt to devise a new way for people all over the world to enjoy great art”.

http://re-create-art.com

Dr. Shin-Ichi Fukuoka

Molecular biologist and award-winning author. Publications include Between Organic and Inorganic (750,000 copies sold to date) and Dynamic Equilibrium. A renowned Vermeer expert, he is the author of Vermeer: Realm of Light, and worked as supervisor and director of the 2012 Vermeer: Realm of Light exhibition held in Tokyo, Japan.

All 37 of Vermeers works, Re-Created, will be displayed in a single gallery and as they would have originally appeared, fresh from Vermeer’s brush. The exhibition is Directed by Dr.Shin-Ichi Fukuoka and is proudly sponsored by ANA AIRLINES. Fore more information about the exhibition and Re-Create, p…

02/09/2015

Re-Create's cover photo

02/09/2015

Re-Create