Understating the Obvious

Perhaps it's so obvious that the reporter felt it didn't merit a mention. In an article on Andrew Wyeth's show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ken Johnson describes the above painting "Otherworld" (2002) as "unlike any other in the show." It is, however, very much like another Wyeth painting but one not in this exhibit: "Christina's World," painted 54 years earlier. Not only are the titles similar, but in both paintings we see a dark-haired woman from behind gazing at a barn. In the 1948 painting, she is looking up at the structure, and in the 2002 one, she's looking down. A dissertation could be written on the relationship between these two works.