After Giotto
(1982-1983)
Joann Verburg
Gelatin silver print

"In Joann Verburg's lyrical, large-format photographs, figures seem to be suspended in reverie.  After Giotto, a work inspired by the Renaissance painter, echoes the formal elegance of its precedent.  The graceful gestures of the male and female figures, separated in Verburg's diptych, connect visually to one another.  The young woman's facial expression, curious yet apprehensive, suggests a moment of emotional pause, either just after or prior to an unknown event.

In 1984, Verburg and her husband, the poet Jim Moore, visited the Italian town of Spoleto. In Italy, Verburg was able to further explore her interest in paintings by Giotto. A work in the swimmers series, After Giotto (1983), makes formal references to a fresco in the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi that depicts Isaac rejecting Esau. The facial expression, hand gesture, and apprehensive demeanor of the subject in Verburg's diptych resembles that of the woman in Giotto's work." 

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