Reproductie van Whistler's Mother door James Abbott McNeill Whistler before 1903

This is a reproduction of Whistler's Mother, although the artist is unknown, and it's printed in a book, which gives the image another layer of mediation. The grayscale feels very appropriate for this composition, which feels tonal and concerned with a subtle rendering of light and shade. I’m really drawn to the way the figure is captured here. The texture of the dress is barely visible, which gives it an almost sculptural quality. You can just make out the wall behind her, and how this helps to make the figure ‘pop’. The artist who reproduced this, was using a mechanical process of layering ink, and this is a very different process to the way that Whistler would have used paint, brush and canvas. In comparison, you might want to consider the work of Gerhard Richter and his blurred photo paintings. These works share an interest in the way we perceive images, and how meaning is created through both process and representation. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself. What does it mean to be an image of an image?