Jérémie Koering, "Royal Occasion: Velázquez' Las Meninas and the Power of Painting"

Velázquez's Las Meninas is undoubtedly one of the most discussed paintings in history.  Countless books, articles, visual glosses, performances and novels have been produced by art historians, artists, philosophers, novelists and film-makers, each trying in their own way to unravel the "mysteries" of this work. So why revisit a painting about which so much has already been said? Perhaps because, in its own pictorial and figurative economy, there is something that invites us to keep coming back to it. The aim here is to highlight the concept of occasion (kairos), which Velazquez uses not only to make painting an art form capable of serving the king, but also to make the painted picture, as image and product, the transitive and reflexive instance from which the viewer (and first and foremost the King) is projected alternately into the future, present and past of the work.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

JHB 100A, Jackman Humanities Building (1st Floor Conference Room), 170 St. George Street, Toronto

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