School of Canaletto 1 and
School of Canaletto 2 were both painted in 1987. In the first painting I added my school desks in front of Canaletto's 1723
Piazza San Marco, National Gallery, London. So deep and vast is Canaletto's space that my addition of the school desks at the bottom of my painting obliged me to eliminate Canaletto's
great arch at the top of the painting. In School of Canaletto 2 I decided that this time I would make a painting in which my activity would result in the least possible alteration of the painting I would quote from. I chose Canaletto's 1765 painting
Capriccio, Academia, Venice. Canaletto's
Capriccio is an imaginary composition made up of architectural features to which I added merely one more imaginary element, the school desks under the colonnade that opens onto the courtyard. I have made a minimal change in Canaletto's painting to turn his
Capriccio into my
School of Canaletto. Even my canvas is the same size as his. (George Deem, A Note by the artist on his painting
School of Canaletto 2, March 25, 1996)
University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon
Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana
The Branson School, Ross, California
