The newly renovated Bowdoin College Museum of Art boasts masterpieces that are centuries old, but it appears modern technology has a role there as well.
In addition to 13 traditional galleries, the museum also includes the Media Gallery, which will regularly feature films that use innovative technology and original visual styles to address contemporary art and culture.
"It's a recognized art form now and many contemporary artists are, if not engaging in the moving image full-time, [they are] at least part time," said curator Alison Ferris of the medium.
"It's very much a part of the way contemporary artists are working," she added.
The current film showing in the Media Gallery is Eve Sussman's "89 Seconds at Alcázar," an interpretation of Diego Velázquez's 1634 painting "Las Meninas." The painting depicts the Infanta Margarita, the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, surrounded by two ladies-in-waiting, a dwarf, a fool, a mastiff, and Velázquez himself standing at an easel. The king and queen are reflected in a mirror in the background of the painting.
In the 10-minute film, Sussman stages the moments during which the Spanish royal family and courtiers would have arranged themselves in their exact spots in the configuration of the painting.
"Restaging the situation leading up to the moment depicted in the painting, '89 Seconds' presents an imagined unfolding of minute movements that could have framed the scene," writes Sussman in her artist's statement. "By linking the singular scene of the painting with a continuity of events, I attempted to script and choreograph body language, instead of simply observing it in everyday life."
To recreate the moments before and after the image painted by Velázquez, Sussman used high-definition video: "the technology of today," said Ferris.
"This piece does a lot of what we're trying to do throughout the museum by juxtaposing the old and the new, just like the building itself. It's a theme that runs throughout the museum and this piece embodies it," said Ferris. "The film is referencing a very historical painting but doing it in a very contemporary way."
"Las Meninas" is one of the most significant paintings in the history of Western art. Velázquez painted the portrait in 1656 when he was King Philip's court painter. It differentiates itself from other standard royal family portraits through Velázquez's mastery of perspective, which breaks down the barrier between the viewer and the portrait.
"His work is revolutionary in its foregrounding of artistic practice both in the moment represented and the painterly techniques he uses," said Art History Director Pamela Fletcher of Velázquez.
"'Las Meninas' is one of the most talked about, looked at paintings in the western tradition because it's so rich in many ways and very enigmatic," she added.
The perplexity of the painting allowed Sussman to create a story around the work.
"It's not just the subject matter that's revolutionary but the connection between the moment of painting and how the whole surface of it is activated by paint and brushwork that together seem to give a primacy to the artist role and the construction of paint and of the moment that Sussman is picking up on," said Fletcher.
Sussman uses dramatic camera movements and zooming to imitate Velázquez's ability paint in a way that allows the viewer to engage in his work.
"She's not really using video transparently to recreate that scene," said Fletcher of Sussman's technique. "She's calling your attention to the way video sees the world that is somewhat analogous to the way Velázquez uses paint."
"The present can help you see different aspects of the past come into perspective," she added.
Works at the museum's Media Gallery will change periodically to accompany new exhibitions as well as feature series of films and videos shown over the course of a semester, summer, or year. The next artist featured in the gallery will be Patty Chang, who will also visit Bowdoin next spring.
"She videotapes herself performing physical feats," said Ferris. "She deals with issues surrounding the body but in a very interesting, funny, but powerful way."
The exhibit of Chang's work will be installed in January 2008.