Map Painting

The Art in Cartography

          Fernando Vincente, an artist living in Madrid, has taken some antique maps and used them as canvases for a number paintings in his "Atlas Series."  For each painting, he used the geographic boundaries in order to shape each painting.  I thought this was really interesting as most of us really haven't thought of maps as something that could be art.  Maps function as a way to get from one place to another, and not usually to express creative ideas.  These paintings, although unable to function as maps now, allow us to see them as more than their usual static categorization.  This is why I chose this.  He is showing us his interpretation of these as more than maps of a certain location.  He is turning the world's landmasses into his perception of the aesthetic qualities that can exist within cartography.  This reminded me of the day we looked at different images and had to decide if we thought it was art and if it had a large monetary value.