Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Until recently, when I would hear somebody mention Rembrandt, only one thing came to mind, “Oh yes, the artist.” That was all I knew: Rembrandt was an artist in another place at another time. Then I took a class at The Getty Center titled, “Becoming Rembrandt: Exploring The Man, The Myth, and The Legend.” Beneath the surface of every creation, whether music, writing, or art, there are always stories. Sometimes these stories aren’t apparent, but every so often they jump out at you immediately. This is the case with Rembrandt’s paintings. Take one glance at one of his portraits and you immediately get the feel of…
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Seeing Something that Hasn’t Been Seen for 400 Years
Sometimes we only see what we’ve been told to see. What if there is something entirely different to see? During 7th grade, Natalie and I enrolled in a magnificent class on the artist Rembrandt with Zhenya Gershman, an artist-educator who was teaching at the Getty Center at the time. She warned us that we might become addicted. To Rembrandt that is. She was right. That is why I found myself, two weeks ago, snaking up the winding roads above Sunset Boulevard to her studio. I was sitting in on another Rembrandt class she was teaching (as it was a school day, I had to promise Natalie I would tell her…
