I was reminded this morning of Andrew Wyeth's famous Christina's World, which I've loved since I was very young. My parents sometimes took me to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where the painting sat uncomfortably amid all the abstract expressionism.
Like (probably) most people, I first saw it as a dreamy painting of a girl (teenage?) enjoying a solitary moment in a field, looking into the distance. I had to be taught to look more closely and see the subject's withered arms. The real story:
The woman in the painting is Anna Christina Olson... Anna had a degenerative muscular disorder which meant that she had not been able to walk since she was a young child. She was firmly against using a wheelchair, so she would crawl everywhere. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when he saw her crawling across a field while he was watching from a window in the house.
I wonder if Christina's flimsy arms make us see this grown woman as a youngster?
I've thought about the way that this information turned Christina's World into an entirely different painting for me. I wonder how many other works are waiting for me to take another look and experience them in a whole new way?
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IC XC NIKA
IC XC NIKA