Simon van Til Contact Text CV	List of works From and To / Elongated View. Light over Horizon (sunset to nautical twilight). The Painter's Eye. Infinity Measured. First Spectrum. edition Continuum. As Opposed To. Here and Now. Single View. Historical Record. Untitled. Spectrum. Gravity Matters. Astronomers Series. Exhibition Views & Exhibition Catalogues		The group of small-scale black and white photographic works, consisting of 3 individual pieces and 1 diptych, each titled Historical Record, appropriates a selection of paintings by the 19th-century painter C.J.L. Portman, through the use of photographic reproductions. Each of these paintings, except for Portret van een oude man in 17e eews kostuum, which is undated, was made before or during the year 1839, the year in which the photographic medium was presented to the world. C.J.L. Portman is known for his contribution to 19th-century Dutch painting, as well as for being the first of the Dutch to have photographed, and to have introduced the Daguerreian photographic process in the Netherlands as early as September 1839. By photographically appropriating the paintings by said maker, and strategically adopting his dualistic relation to both painting and photography, this work attempts to circumscribe a specific moment in history considering the representation of the world; the arrival of the photographic medium. The historical and art-historical implications of the introduction of photography, and the complex relationship between this new medium and painting, are adressed in an intricate reading of the potential of photography, as a means to capture the world in images.
		1  2  3  4  5	Painting in collection of ICN, the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage
© Simon van Til		Historical Record /  Portret van Czaar Peter de Groote in zijn huis te Zaandam, Christiaan Julius Lodewijk Portman, 1839. 2009-2011 framed gelatin silver print