Verso (Rembrandt, Lucretia)

Vik Muniz

2012

Mixed media

Minneapolis Institute of Art

When someone wants to see if an artwork is ‘real’, they look at its back or its base, the part of it that normally is not visible to anyone but museum conservators, art handlers, and curators. The verso of a great painting provides a “back story” that might include places the artwork has traveled, its provenance (former owners), and even scribbles and marks made by conservators and artists over the years. Each has an individual personality, quite distinct in its carpentry, gouges, tags, and hardware. Verso (Rembrandt, Lucretia) is a disconcertingly faithful reproduction of the back of one of the MIA’s best known masterpieces realize