You may think that you know her, stop and revel in it, and see a faint smile of the woman in the painting, or you can feel the meeting of eyes...
The Paper has learned that from May 4, the Durvege Gallery in London launched "Reconstruction: The Woman in the Window", which was inspired by the collection of Rembrandt's "Window". The exhibition spans ancient and modern times, starting from an ancient Greek vase, bringing together more than 50 works by Botticelli, Rossetti, David Hockney, Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman and other artists, revealing how the artist interprets women in different eras and cultures with a traditional theme, and the outside viewer seems to become an observer, an intruder, and even a lover and voyeur.
Rembrandt, The Window, 1645
A woman's head rests against the window ledge, her beautiful face tinged with loneliness and desolation. Carved from medieval limestone, the piece irresistibly evokes the viewer's desire to break the fence and set it free again, or at least to put his hand inside and caress her sad cheek. Locked up in a cell because of her refusal to marry, Saint Avia saw a world she could never touch, and the empathy of the anonym French artist was incredible.
Anon. St. Avia (The Imprisoned Woman), written in 1450-1500, in private collection
It is one of the exhibits "Reconstruction: The Woman in the Window", in the red-haired woman of the Renaissance painter Botticelli of almost the same era, leaning against the window frame with her hand on the window frame, looking directly out of the frame, suggesting that the frame is broken; by the 17th century Dutch painter Gabriel l Metsu, an African woman wearing red velvet and pearl earrings sits behind a stone window.
Botticelli, Smeralda Bandinelli, c. 1471
Gabriel May, The Woman in the Red Dress, circa 1660-1669
There is also a film by Rachel Lowe, who uses a marker pen to capture the scenery passing by in the car window, which is beautiful and sad. Bourgeois's "My Blue Sky") directly uses the windows used in her Manhattan studio in her later years, and although it has been mottled and rusty, it has brought her unlimited views. Here, the artist recreates the landscape outside the window in the form of a painting in which the mountain landscape rises and falls under the blue sky, reminiscent of waves, clouds or women's breasts.
Bourgeois, My Blue Sky, 1989-2003
Men shape women, women reinvent themselves – this is one of the many themes in the exhibition, a theme that has been brilliantly presented in art for two thousand years. The oldest work in the exhibition dates back to 900 BC, when ancient Phoenician craftsmen carved the face of a temple witch on ivory, staring out the window in a sudden and provocative gesture, giving the audience a question of "Who is watching whom?" questions.
The sculpture also proves that the painters of the Dutch Golden Age did not innovate the concept of women and windows as people think. When we look at Rembrandt's The Window in a new light, the girl with the crimson cheeks leaning against the windowsill holds her elbow against the stone wall as if looking at us from a high window. In narrow studies, she tends to focus on her identity, ignoring the happy atmosphere conveyed in the paintings.
Gerrit Dou, The Woman Playing the Ancient Piano, circa 1665
Essentially, a window is a frame in a frame, but it can also serve as a stage—the woman on the balcony, suggesting the caged bird in the European painting tradition. But this type of work inevitably emphasizes an observation: the woman looking out, or the audience's surveillance of her; we unconsciously catch her in the artist's sight.
Picasso, Woman (Woman by the Window), 1952
Picasso's huge black-and-white painting depicts his former lover, Fran oise Gilot. She put her hands against the window, and she saw what we couldn't see, and he saw a sense of urgency. She seemed to want to go out, and the handle on her right hinted at the departure, and she was the only woman in Picasso's life who voluntarily left Picasso.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Smogin Joe, The Window, 1995
In life-size photographs of Wolfgang Tillmans, musician Smokin Jo presses his finger against the window pane, revealing a huge and subtle power; simran Janjua, also during the quarantine, when inner love meets through fingertips on both sides of the window, Simran Janjua captures the scene.
Himmlang Janjua, Dadi's Love, 2020
The perspective offered by the exhibition is also special, such as through the Mughal screen, which can glimpse the epitome of Indian culture - two women appear in front of the window, like theatrical performers, holding hands and showing a very expressive smile. And a flower passes through the window frame, allowing people to feel the world outside the window.
David Hockney, The Tower Has a Window, 1969
The shadow behind the window, a handful of long hair pouring down from the open window, allows us to infer the existence of women almost without thinking. But the exhibition gives us a rethinking of the presence of women in art, where she can refuse to enter the camera, like Andrew Jackson's photograph Hand #1, or like Cindy Sherman's blonde star looking down from the windowsill, she may be on the verge of a breakthrough, perhaps manipulated by some "Hitchcock" behind the scenes.
Andrew Jackson, Hand #1
A special work in the exhibition is Degas's The Woman by the Window (1871), a loan from the Courtaud Museum, where you can hardly see a woman leaning against the window in the yellow-brown light of the Parisian interior, like a heron hiding in the shadows. Light poured from the open shutters onto her face, and everything she thought and felt belonged to herself. It's a work about how to look at the scene, the light that pours in, allowing us to see the subtle changes in light and shadow.
Degas, The Woman by the Window, 1871
This is an exhibition worth watching and thinking deeply about. The relationship between depicting, seeing and being seen in women has also re-expanded the possibilities of the exhibition.
Exhibition site
Note: This article is compiled from Guardian art critic Laura Cumming's review of the exhibition, "All Eyes Are On Her," by Dr Jennifer Sliwka, King's College London, which will run until 4 September.
Poster outside the exhibition hall