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‘Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams’

Vilhelm Hammershøi and Carl Theodor Dreyer

11 Jul 2008

Tableau from Ordet (1955), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Tableau from Ordet (1955), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

The filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer has been described as Hammershøi’s one true heir. Although these two Danes never met, the stylistic affinities between their respective oeuvres are compelling: their images speak of the listless time and drifting dust of empty rooms, and the traces of bodies passing through them. Dr Claire Thomson, UCL, discusses how Hammershøi’s still, silent paintings and Dreyer’s moving images help us grasp the historical ambition of cinema itself: to embalm time and matter.

Reynolds Room; 6.30-7.30pm; £14/£6* (includes lecture, exhibition entry and a drink), £10 (includes lecture and a drink)

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Show photo credits

Alexander Calder, 'Sumac V', 1953, Mobile, painted metal. 125 x 140 cm. Maeght family, Paris. Photo © Galerie Maeght. © Calder Foundation, New York/DACS London 2008

 

Unknown artist, Incense burner in the shape of a church, 10th–11th century. Silver partially gilded, 36 cm. Procuratoria di San Marco, Venezia. Photo per gentile concessione della Procuratoria di San Marco/Cameraphoto Arte, Venice