Inquisitor 1593: Mirror Image II by Serpent

15 comments on “Inquisitor 1593: Mirror Image II by Serpent”

1. Carte blanche puzzles usually induce anxiety approaching terror in me but actually this was at the tamer end of the scale as far as the gridfill was concerned and a real pleasure to solve with some really great clueing throughout. Nice endgame and I learned about an artist I’ve never heard of. Lovely.

2. All thanks to Serpent for what I found a fairly tough challenge, and to duncanshiell for the painstaking explanation. (One tiny correction: at 31D, “school children” has an extra space in the reproduced clue.)

   It was useful that RED LETTER DAYS had one of the easier clues and is such a familiar phrase that it didn’t seem necessary to consult Collins. The artist’s name was new to me, but Google soon turned him up — along with the expensive auction and an image of the painting which instantly suggested what the final grid must look like.

   Not having a navy-blue highlighter to hand, I had some fun with Gimp (a free Photoshop-alike) creating slabs of navy blue to overlay the scanned grid, just transparent enough that the letters showed through. Obsessive, moi?

3. I’ve come to enjoy these blank-grid puzzles in which the clues are presented without numbers but in conventional order. Even though ‘cold solving’ is not really my forte I found that with only a third of the clues solved I could start to link some words together, and by degrees the unsolved clues got extra letters to help with their unravelling. A highly satisfying experience.

   When I completed the grid, leaving 13 cells blank, I realised I would have to look up Barnett Newman in order to get any further. Having done so, I thought either Broken Obelisk or Onement VI deserved to appear somewhere, and of course the latter has 9 letters and was readily found. The painting itself suggested directly what should be done to the middle column and served to confirm what the anagram gave us and what the instructions told us to do concerning the redistribution of letters.

   I agree with what you say about the quality of the clues, Duncan.

   Thanks to Serpent for an enjoyable crossword and endgame and to Duncan for an excellent blog.

4. Having felt quite pleased with myself on filling another carte blanche – a type of puzzle which used to fill me with horror – I came a cropper at the close not spotting that it was “nine cells” that identified the required colour, and opted for as close to red as I could get. Oh well. Enjoyable, still.

5. I like catre-blanche gids and don’t usually have any trouble placing the words.  I am not good at cold-solving so there has to be a few easier clues to get me started, and fortunately there were.  I found BARNETT NEWMAN across the middle but had no idea who or what he was.  Wikipedia explained everything and the final grid was very satisfying, I had used blue pen to fill the grid so I skipped the shading.

   I have had a lifelong inability to appreciate painting and sculpture.  I have visited all sorts of galleries and museums and find it interesting to read what knowledgeable people write about art but the pieces themselves make very little connection with me.  Barnett Newman’s paintings are yet another mystery.

   Thanks to Duncan and Serpent.

6. @PeeDee

   I’ve always had a similar disconnection with galleries and museums. I gave the Tate Modern another go last week but within 10 minutes developed ‘gallery leg’, a rare condition caused by walking unnaturally slowly in a confined space whilst trying to summon up enthusiasm for what every ounce of you is telling you is boring.

7. Enjoyable and not as tough as many a cart blanche. (Though not as much of a breeze as Duncan found it.) Never heard of the artist before, but unlike some of the previous commenters I do quite like some modern art – although for me Barnett Newman is “OK”.

   It was only a day or so after I’d finished the puzzle, when I got around to doing the colouring, that I noticed that all the orphaned fragments of entries that had intersected the now-blank central column were in Chambers: SIGHTS, ER, REAMS, U, CEROUS, ROTTEN, ST, TO, TOISES, BELOVE, S, MINIM, LA and SISTER – surely not an accident? And BARNET & NEW MAN are in there too!

   Thanks to blogger and setter.

8. After completing my first ever carte blanche earlier this year (the Pandora’s Box one) I felt confident enough to attempt this and was delighted to make steady progress over a few days.

   If anyone is interested in hearing a fascinating story about another of Barnett Newman’s works, here’s a link: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-many-deaths-of-a-painting/

   By coincidence I had listened to the story a few weeks ago. I’d failed to remember Newman’s name but after looking up his work for this puzzle I was instantly reminded of the story and realised it was the same person.

   Many thanks to Serpent for another impressive puzzle, and to Duncan for the blog.

9. HG @7
   As you say, surely not an accident.  I would never have thought that the fragmengts would make real words, and I think it’s a remarkable achievement.

   [PeeDee @5
   My interest in fine art more than doubled (relatively late in life) when I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  I wisely bought the cheap printed guide to the artworks therein – not the expensive glossy one – and the short paragraphs written about a selection of the great works on display were a revelation.  One then knew what to look for that the casual visitor would miss while walking past, and you couldn’t fail to appreciate what the artist in each case had accomplished.  I’m not suggesting you go that far to prove my point – I’ll just say that if you visit a gallery or museum with just a smattering of expert information to hand it’s well worth it.]

10. I usually like Inquisitors that aspire to reproduce works of art, and this was no exception, though I do wonder if Serpent sought a bluer phrase for the central column.

    All became clear when I saw Barnett Newman across the middle. I’m slightly surprised he is so little known in this neighbourhood; the comments on modern art made me think of Alan Bennett’s thought, as he observed people peering hopefully at puzzling canvasses: “You’re not supposed to like all of it.”

    Many thanks to Serpent for a very nicely calibrated challenge, and to Duncanshiell for clearing up the few queries I had.

11. I really enjoyed the process of solving this, but had felt a little let down by the endgame, having expected a little more from it than just replacing the same letters back where they came from. However, HG’s comment @7 has more than balanced out that mild disappointment – brilliant and satisfying attention to detail from Serpent.

    The name Barnett Newman seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I was trying to resist Google and considering settling on overwriting all the letters in red but did eventually crack and so ended up with the correct solution, albeit in more of a slate grey than blue.

12. Alan B – thank you for the advice.  I still hope that one day something will click in my brain and I will develop some feeling for painting (traditional or modern).  I will persevere!

13. Many thanks to duncanshiell for the excellent blog, and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment on the puzzle. Particular thanks go to HolyGhost @7 for pointing out that all the fragments left after the rearrangement are real words.

14. A bit late commenting but we really enjoyed this IQ.

    We did not know the artist so needed to google. A neat endgame.

    Thanks to Serpent and Duncan.

15. I enjoyed this one but failed on the endgame. I took the nine vertical cells to be RED LETTER and interpreted “colour all filled cells” to mean colour in red the empty cells that were filled by the redistributed letters. I did find Barnett Newman and got the idea that the final grid should represent the style some of his paintings but that was it. Didn’t see ONEMENT VI at all.

    Excellent effort from Serpent and a very poor one from me 🙁

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