The absorbing new Wyeth exhibition, "Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In," is in certain respects the opposite of the Helga show, even something of an exorcism of it. Where the Helga show was dominated by a single human figure, the current exhibition is entirely without people, except for a couple of preparatory sketches... Instead of such cacophonous material, the current show is built around a single, quiet motif in many variations: the window. The result of the carefully concieved installation, in which preparatory studies are grounded around more finished and often drastically simplified paintings, is an increasingly immersive experience, an aesthetic revelation rather than prurient one. The catalog essays, by National Gallery curators Nancy Anderson (on Wyeth's working process) and Charles Brock (comparing Wyeth's windows to two influences, Edward Hopper and the Pennsylvania precisionist Charles Sheeler), are understanded, inquisitive, and well written...--Christopher Benfey "The New York Review of Books"
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