Rembrandt

I saw my first Rembrandt, in person mind you, when the Armand Hammer Art Collection was on display at California State University, Bakersfield. It was a momentous occasion for me. I had seen original art before, but never anything such as I saw that day. I walked into rooms filled with works by Dutch, Flemish, German, and Italian masters. My world changed in a split second. I finally "got" it when someone said, "Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us." (Roy Adzak)

What it did for and to me was wake me up. Up until that time I was culturally asleep. The richness of the colors, the amazing techniques to take blank canvases and create life out of them took my breath away.

The fact that I was standing in front of something that was created hundreds of years earlier gave me chills. The clarity of the strokes, the vibrancy of the colors, the beauty of Rembrandt's work was just as beautiful as it must have been the day he finished it.

I had to have a poster of his work. After I left the exhibit, I learned they had sold out of the poster I wanted. It was an early work of his entitled, "Portrait of a Man Holding a Black Hat." (c. 1637) I became a person with a mission. I had to have that poster. I tried finding the poster at all art places in town. No luck. I wound up writing to the Armand Hammer Collection administrators begging for a copy of the poster. I lucked out as they took pity on me. In the mail came a copy of the poster I lusted after.



If you want to understand why I love this man's work, check out this link:

http://www.rembrandtinsocal.org/slideshow/slideshow.html