Sale of Great Wines at the Hospice de Beaune: Two Candles Still Burn c. 1953

Editor: This is Denis Mathews' "Sale of Great Wines at the Hospice de Beaune: Two Candles Still Burn," a mixed media work. It's a busy scene, a crowd perhaps? How do you interpret this work, focusing on its materials and creation? Curator: I notice the layering of materials, the visible process of building up the image. Look at how Mathews uses the medium to convey the event: a market spectacle intrinsically linked to consumption. Editor: So, the visible process mirrors the commercial activity? Curator: Precisely. It highlights the materiality of both art and wine, and the labor involved in their production and exchange. The "candles" imply an ending—of daylight, the sale, the vintage? What is consumed must be produced and bought. Editor: That makes me see the image completely differently. It's not just a scene, it's about the means of its own making.