In
the distance, on the right-hand side, the coach that has dropped Courbet at
this spot can be seen moving off. When it was first exhibited, critics thought this a boastful work, a blatant
self-advertisement. For what kind of subject is it? It shows a 35-year-old
painter exchanging greetings with a provincial art collector
Big deal. Gustave
Courbet’s The Meeting shows three men doffing their hats on a country way. There’s some fixed landmark, some scheduled stop, which
gives a reason for the picture to have settled at this particular point on
the earth’s surface. There are pictures, though, that pitch their tents just anywhere Their here
is nowhere in particular It’s simply somewhere somebody is.
It’s nowhere
in particular, it’s just somewhere somebody is
Now think of art A picture is a here. It is a location, somewhere in a real
or fictional universe. It is a view, which frames a section of space, and
covers a stretch of ground It is a vicinity A scene that can be entered
and exited A picture is a place. Usually, a picture’s here is a bit more specific than that. The picture’s
place is attached to a definite site in the world. The scene is laid in an
established setting – a house, a courtyard, a bridge, a mountain, a wood, a
well, a manger.
They can’t help but make you think, on the contrary, about the
utter contingency of here Wherever you are, you are always here You take
your here with you That’s what here means Here is anywhere. Still, these signs that declare so fixedly that YOU ARE HERE, on this spot,
remain funny. The plan knows where its reader stands in the
world, because it knows where it stands. The “here” in this case
isn’t an arbitrary and temporary stop. It’s a fixed point on the surface of
the earth, and can, therefore, be mapped.