Dr. Aneta Georgievska-Shine's New Book Published

Named by Christie's as one of the Best Art Books to Buy in 2022, "Vermeer and the Art of Love" is not to be missed

This summer Professor Aneta Georgievska-Shine's book Vermeer and the Art of Love will be published, although copies of the book already are available on the web and in (quite select) book shops.

Already Vermeer and the Art of Love has generated a good deal of interest. Christie's has tabbed Professor Georgievska-Shine's book one of the best art books to buy for this year, stating that, while "Vermeer’s work is sometimes seen as otherworldly, characterised as it is by gorgeous bursts of northern light into otherwise dark, Protestant interiors," according to Professor Georgievska-Shine, "this can be conceived precisely in terms of the love that the artist invested in his pictures."

Aneta wrote a blog for the publisher in February that offers a glimpse of her approach to Johannes Vermeer and his work, both of which she maintains are at once known all too well and yet, not fully understood: "What sets Vermeer apart is his fine balancing between various possible ways of seeing the world. Though he often includes clearly symbolic objects, such as a mirror or a map, or presents potentially moralising ‘situations’ such as a young lady talking alone with a gentleman, he always reminds us that nothing is as simple as it may appear at first. Not every woman beholding herself in a mirror stands for vanity, nor is a girl asleep necessarily a symbol of moral imperfection. His refusal to lock ‘meanings’, combined with his attention to detail, as well as his infinitesimal adjustments of optical realities for the sake of pictorial harmonies, slows us down even in front of something we have seen countless times. And through this slowing-down we grasp what may be the most important aspect of his creative process: that lover-like absorption with the object of representation."

Congratulations Dr. Georgievska-Shine, who also will assume the role of Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department this year!