Wind From the Sea- Andrew Wyeth
A friend sent me a link to the exhibit, Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In, that is hanging at the National Gallery of Art until the end of November. It centers on a group his work that features windows in the imagery, a theme that he revisited numerous times in his career. It is work that demonstrates a real sense of abstraction and deeper emotion within his realism, something he felt was often overlooked in his career, particularly by those critics who downplayed the importance of his work during his lifetime. There has been a reevaluation in the aftermath of his death with a deeper understanding of it and at last Wyeth is getting the full acclaim his work accorded.
My friend said that the introductory essay for the exhibit reminded him of my work. At first, even though I was pleased with the compliment of being compared to Wyeth in any way, I didn’t quite see it. Our work is, after all, so different in appearance in so many ways, our surfaces and imagery having little in common. But the quote from Wyeth at the end of the essay made it much clearer:
Andrew Wyeth
You can have the technique and paint the object, but it’s what’s inside you, the way you translate the object — and that’s pure emotion. I think most people get to my work through the backdoor. They’re attracted by the realism and sense the emotion and the abstraction — and eventually, I hope, they get their own powerful emotion.”
It’s a sentiment I have often tried to get across to people. I want my work to have a simplicity that invites easy accessibility into the picture, hoping then that they will see the underlying elements– the forms, colors and textures– that transmit the emotion of the piece, hoping that my own emotion will be replaced by their own. Like Wyeth, I consider myself an abstract painter in this same backdoor approach, inviting the viewer with something with which they can easily relate initially until they fully realize the emotion of the piece.
That is, if they do at all. There are some who just won’t get beyond the apparent simplicity and accessible nature of the work. Certainly the critics of Wyeth never did try to look beyond the surface and that was their loss. But if you’re in the DC area this year, try to make it to the National Gallery of Art to see this wonderful work. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Redtree Times 