Versailles, Vase (Detail) 1906

This photograph of a vase in Versailles was taken by Eugène Atget at the turn of the last century. It’s an image of an object, but it’s also an image of an image, a copy of a classical sculpture. Atget was clearly drawn to the act of reproduction, and how a form shifts and changes through each iteration. Looking at this photo, I can feel a yearning for the past, for tradition and beauty, but it also feels so contemporary. I’m thinking about how the signatures scratched onto the surface disrupt the perfection of the scene. They draw me in, asking: who were these people, and what did they feel when they defaced this beautiful object? It makes me think of Cy Twombly, how he combined classical references with graffiti-like marks. Artists build on what’s come before, making a personal response to art history. This exchange across time, a conversation between artists and viewers, is what keeps art alive.