MuseoMag: MuseoMag 2020_03

MuseoMag 2020_03

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Title:: MuseoMag

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Title:: MuseoMag 2020_03

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Title:: Intelligence, power and beauty: In conversation with Marta Weiss and Maja Neerman, two talented women posing for the series "Artfully dressed" by Carla van de Puttelaar

6 museomag 03 ‘ 2020 INTELLIGENCE, POWER AND BEAUTY IN CONVERSATION WITH MARTA WEISS AND MAJA NEERMAN, TWO TALENTED WOMEN POSING FOR THE SERIES “ARTFULLY DRESSED” BY CARLA VAN DE PUTTELAAR In the frame of our temporary exhibition Brushed by Light, we interviewed two “promi- nent and promising women in the art world” who posed for Carla van de Puttelaar‘s Series Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World. Three questions to… Marta Weiss, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: In the catalogue Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World, you remember the session as “both surprisingly collabora- tive and surprisingly tiring”. In which sense? It was collaborative in that Carla tookmy suggestion about trying some photographs with my daugh- ter Penelope. Also, early in the session Carla asked me to hold an orchid for several shots and as I became more comfortable, I was able to tell her that I don’t actual- ly like orchids very much. On the other hand, it was physically tiring to pose for the camera, especially holding Penelope, who felt very he- avy after a while. Your daughter is staring at the camera and you are looking away. What inspires you this composi- tion? I love that Penelope is looking at the camera but I am looking away from her. I think it saves the pic- ture from being overly sentimental. The photograph depicts the close physical contact between mother and child – reinforced by the way Penelope is holding onto the fabric of my dress – but the fact that I’m looking away suggests that I have thoughts and an identity of my own that are not necessarily connected with motherhood. Did Carla give you any instruc- tions for the sitting? Could you choose the dress? The arrangement of looks wasn’t planned (unless Carla tells you otherwise!). I had been posing for quite a whi- le by the time Penelope joined me, so I think I was just trying to maintain a kind of neutral expression I had been using for most of the session. The dress was my mother’s and when I mentioned it to her after sitting for Carla, my mother found a photograph of herself wearing it on New Year’s Eve 1970, holding my older sister, who was then a 6-week-old baby. It was a lovely coincidence that gives the photograph multigeneratio- nal significance for my family. Marta Weiss with her daughter, Penelope (2018) © carla van de puttelaar

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