Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van de Nieuwe Kerk te Amsterdam 1894 - 1915

Here's a photo reproduction by Koop Remmerts Semplonius, capturing the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, its sepia tones giving it a feeling of a distant memory. You know, when I look at this image, I think about how the photograph can flatten what the painter tries to build. The way Semplonius has rendered the facade of the building – it's all about capturing light, and maybe the painting it reproduced was too. Imagine the painter trying to get that sense of depth, working with the materiality of paint to build form. I always think, when paint is thick in places and thin in others, it's like the artist is trying to communicate something about touch, about the world, or about the act of seeing. I wonder, did Semplonius wish he could dive back into that painting, and smear those colours himself? I know I would. It’s an interesting thing to see art made out of other art—artists are always inspiring each other that way, and it is interesting that there are people in front of both buildings, as they might be experiencing their own forms of awe.