Recently an amazing image was unveiled in Amsterdam. The ‘painting’, which was created by data analysts and computer geeks, is titled “the next Rembrandt”. It has been described by some as ‘nice’ but our European correspondent Greg Beers was very impressed. He sent us an enthusiastic message saying “it’s a ripper of a rendering of Rembrandt!”
The image was created using 168,263 fragments of Rembrandt’s art, along with a facial recognition algorithm to create an accurate portrait and ensure the final 3-D print was of the highest quality. It consists of 148 million pixels, which sounds like a lot to us!
Rembrandt was one of the greatest painters and print makers of European art. He was born on the 16th of July 1606 and died a poor man on the 4th of October 1669. He was a popular artist in his time and taught many other artists too. His self-portraits and portraits of fellow artists and ordinary people are highly regarded and considered extremely valuable.
Of the ten most expensive works sold in the world, Rembrandt’s twin portraits of Maertin Soolmans and his wife Oopjen Coppit, painted in 1634, sit at a respectable sixth.
Rembrandt was an incredible talent, however the same cannot be said of the advertising executive Bas Korsten who came up with the idea. He is just an ordinary bloke.
To his credit he did persevere with the project and although he said he was “greeted with a lot of disbelief and scepticism”, he managed to persuade boffins in various organisations to get involved.
However, not everyone was impressed with the picture. As with most art, there has to be a critic to sharpen our focus on the work.
Our man, Greg Beers, spoke to a vocal pamphleteer outside the gallery who was dishing out anti-robotic Rembrandt reports. He refused to give his name and admonished the portrait with many a breathless exhortation. “This is an international disgrace, a technological travesty, and an affront to all artists’ sensibilities”, he bellowed.
We have obtained a copy of his pamphlet and after deciphering its contents we’ve concluded it does nothing to elucidate what has riled him so.
Conversely, however, The Fox Gazette looks forward to more such portraits. In fact, this new hybrid-style of art making is something we’ve yearned for, particularly as it has ignited disinhibited behaviour in our office.