Ori Gersht brings Cotán painting to life

In the Drawing Workshop we dedicate an entire class to the concept of negative space. One of the artists we look at, in order to better understand this concept, is Spanish painter Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560 – 1627). The lush black backgrounds in his still life paintings not only emphasize the negative space between the objects, but they bring an existential quality to the otherwise mundane still life.
See post: "Negative Space: from Juan Sánchez Cotán to Rachel Whiteread"

Juan Sánchez Cotán

Juan Sánchez Cotán

We didn't have time to look at this video in class, but it is a great follow up to Cotán's work. Contemporary Israeli photographer Ori Gersht has literally brought a Cotán-style painting to life. 

• How do you think Gersht's work effects the interpretation of Cotán's work?
• Does Gersht bring new content to the work, or further underscore the themes already at play in Cotán's work, for example: mortality, brevity of life, time, etc...?