I Observe

A new exhibition at Rehs Contemporary Galleries explores the power of observation.

- Rochelle Belsito

Toward the end of the 18th century in England, Romantic poetry began to emerge as a reaction against Enlightenment. One of the most enduring concepts of the genre is the idea of the sublime, which relates to the heightening of an experience by appealing to one’s emotions. William Wordsworth, one of the earliest proponents of romanticism, was particularly drawn to this notion. He wrote of how a poet he knew would go outside and jot notes about nature; he then wrote a description of what he saw rather than imbuing his poetry with his experience.

Wordsworth explained, “He should have left his pencil behind, and gone forth in a meditative spirit; and, on a later day, he should have embodied in verse not all that he had noted but what he best remembered of the scene; and he would have then presented us with its soul, and not with the mere visual aspect of it.”

In the visual arts, this idea often rings true as well, particularly when a painter puts brush to canvas and offers their interpretation of the world around them. These can be literal observations of the landscape or still lifes, or they can be more surrealistic imagery that they have created based on their experiences. Yet, all are more than the visual—they are filled with a spirit of the artist as they observe and take in what is before them.