Looking In or Looking Out? Andrew Wyeth Retrospective Has A Point of View

Wind By The Sea by Andrew Wyeth

Sunday afternoon on the Mall--  The story goes that when Andrew Wyeth was painting the view from a dormer in the attic room of the Olson House (subject of many of his works), he opened the window. Suddenly the ocean air came wafting through, gently lifting the frayed lace curtains and disturbing a century’s worth of dust. The image left him speechless with emotion. This experience later became the theme for one of his most important paintings, Wind By The Sea (1947.) 

Now Wind By The Sea and other works by the realist painter are currently on display at the National Gallery of Art. They’re part of an unusual exhibit called “Looking Out, Looking In.” The show centers on Wyeth’s 60-year fascination with windows and his exploration of the subject as a vehicle for conveying complex human emotions.

The exhibit is easy to navigate and consists of 60 watercolors, tempera paintings and drawings rendered in the subdued grey and brown palette that typifies much of Wyeth’s work. Equally divided between works depicting “looking in” and those “looking out,” the images are spare and elegant and raise immediate questions about the nature of transparency and symbolism within the geometric structure of windows.

Many of the images “looking in” include contemplative views of weathered grey farmhouses and old stone homes (one light on) perched high on grass hillsides or buried in snow.  
Other images “looking out” show perspectives from sparse attic rooms, barn haylofts and old worn sheds, even from the artist’s own studio. One particularly arresting work portrays a tiny staircase spiraling downwards out of sight past a rustic stone window. You can faintly glimpse rocks and sea beyond.

Wyeth grew to believe that windows were the eyes and pieces of the soul. He explored the subject using different vantage points, landscapes and reflections to create his imagery, painting in a realist style to convey abstract principles of human emotion and feeling. His paintings show us the dual nature of the window: how views outside can convey feelings of expansion and connection with nature beyond, while views into a home’s interior convey feelings of closeness and intimacy. In these paintings, you can see sadness and nostalgia represented, but also hope and appreciation. The simple geometry of the windows, at once reflective and transparent, beckons you outwards while it raises questions about what lies within.

Over the years, Wyeth continued to experiment with the image of the window, returning to the subject more than three hundred times. “Looking Out, Looking In” is worth the view.

Posted by Carole Funger
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The show will only be seen in Washington, DC and is on view at the National Gallery of Art until November 30, 2014.