A Conversation on The Coronation

Nicholas and Sheila Pye, still from The Coronation, 3-channel video/still 2008. Courtesy of the Curator's Office and Nicholas and Sheila Pye.

Museum volunteer Gerry Hendershot and Volunteer Coordinator Lisa Leinberger discuss The Coronation by Nicholas and Sheila Pye. The three-panel video work is installed in a gallery with Georges Rouault’s Tragic Landscape (from our permanent collection), creating a dialogue between the works in the latest installment of the Intersections series. It is on view through May 8.

Gerry: I believe I have decoded the Pye installation. It’s based on a 15th century altarpiece by Jan van Eyck.

Lisa: You are so right!

Hubert van Eyck, completed by Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, c. 1423-32 (Ghent, St. Bavo)

Gerry: Rouault described himself as “a Gothic artist… Preoccupied with sinister backgrounds and besetting sins,” which abound in both the Van Eyck and Pye pieces. I saw that altarpiece years ago, and it surfaced to my consciousness when I saw the Pye triptych. Continue reading