The Satisfactions of a Limited View: On the paintings of Horace Pippin

Abstract

The Satisfactions of a Limited ViewOn the paintings of Horace Pippin Janice N. Harrington (bio) As if to denydistance or viewpoint, as if to refute continuitiesof space and linear perspective—the artisthas drawn the window’s shades. The windowsare architectural, an aspect of wall or, more exactly,negation or cataract. A painted shade on a painted window in a painted room asserts that there is nothingbeyond the seeming now or here, beyondthe quaint vanities of our senses. I am because I see. I am what I have seen.There are no vanishing points, for we fearabandonment. A shaded window begs: stay,or rather—look, or rather—I give you what I have.The blackened window denies separation, refusesdifference. Closed: the doors. Drawn: the shades.Why recollect? Memory furnishes emptyrooms with dustcovers. Outside: chaos. Inside: boundaries,a little space to move in, much more than we need. [End Page 835] Janice N. Harrington Janice N. Harrington, Illinois Poet Laureate, is author of The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home (2011), Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone (2007), winner of the A. Poulin, Jr., Poetry Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and a number of books for children. She teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Copyright © 2014 The Johns Hopkins University Press