Painters don’t talk about Vermeer

What does it mean to study, interpret, and understand Vermeer today, and how do times, perspectives, theories, biographies, and histories act to shape interpretations of canonical art? Is Vermeer a "given" stable and recuperable figure, or someone, something, "produced" by the needs, preoccupations, and pressures of any given historical moment? These were some of the questions posed by a group of scholars who came together in March 2004 for a transdisciplinary colloquium organized and sponsored by the Clark and the AHRB Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory, and History at the University of Leeds. This colloquium was convened by Nanette Salomon, professor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, and Griselda Pollock, from the Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory, and History at the University of Leeds..

Participants included: Ernst van Alphen (University of Leiden), Mieke Bal, (cultural analyst, Amsterdam and Toronto), Clare Pajaczkowska (psychoanalytical cultural historian, London), Alison Rowley (University of Leeds), and Edward Snow ( Rice University)..