Review of Tim's Vermeer (2013) by Patrick K — 01 May 2014

I'll go out on a limb and say your interest in this is likely going to be fairly proportional to how much you happen to care about art history. A Texas inventor becomes fascinated with the photorealistic paintings of Vermeer and devises an optical technique that allows him to replicate one of his pieces in period-accurate conditions.

It can be dry stuff and yes, somewhat of a vanity project (Tim is buddies with Penn + Teller, who just so happen to be the primary producers and directors of the documentary). But its true value - and perhaps what has been lost on a lot of the negative reviewers - is the implicit question Tim's thesis and experiment ultimately raise: what differentiates Tim's Vermeer from the original painting? It's telling that Vermeer's hypothesized technique is likened to photography pre-photography. Like that medium, things like composition, framing, light, and visual texture are necessary considerations to a harmonious image, and Tim's experiment does nothing to challenge Vermeer's perceptiveness in these matters - 'seeing' vs' 'feeling' is never assumed to be under debate. Rather, it's merely convincing evidence that Vermeer was a genius but he was also human - and why shouldn't humans be allowed to use tools?