Obituary

Vermeer's scholar reaching toward a celestial globe became the image of someone absorbed in a glowing orb — which is to say, all of us with our phones. It died when the globe got photoshopped into a smartphone and the metaphor closed the loop.

Portrait: Sailko · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Born

2015

Died

2020

Cause of death

Stared into a globe instead of his phone

Last sighting

A 'me researching at 2am' edit, 2020

Resting place

Section J, Row 3

Category

art