The Curator's Eye

Lisa Sweet has spent twenty years as an artist and academic exploring the history, mythology and theology of medieval piety. In her paintings and prints, Sweet draws on the visual expression of that piety, the attributes frequently used in the iconography of the saints in medieval and early Christian art, to create her own twenty-first-century icons. Margaret Bullock, manager of the Kittredge Gallery and the curator for Sweet’s exhibition, Devotion and Demonstration, explains that Sweet’s painting Lily references the Annunciation – the moment, according to Christian tradition, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will be the handmaiden of the Lord and bear a child through supernatural means. Specific elements are typically found in depictions of the Annunciation: domestic interiors, lilies symbolizing purity, and doves or the hand of God. 

“How can I use these codified signals, signals that have been used in standard fashion for centuries, in a new way?” asks Sweet, gesturing toward the piece that hangs before her in the chapel-like exhibition space. In Lily, Sweet’s figure clutches a lily bulb instead of the flower. The blue-and-white tile in the background is based on a bee pattern from quilting. “The bee is an ancient Christian symbol for fertility,” Sweet explains.

For Bullock, the work raises many questions. What should we make of this woman with a pillow bound to her figure? Is that a helping hand in the background? Is it the hand of God? Has this situation been forced upon her? Is she ignoring a deity who is reaching down to help her? Is she lost in her own misguided simulation of the Annunciation and missing an opportunity for a true spiritual connection?

THE ARTIST

Age: 45

Writer who speaks to her spirit: José Saramago (Winner of the Nobel prize in literature in 1998, author of Blindness, Seeing and Death with Interruptions)

Writer who speaks to her intellect: David Freedberg (director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University)

Works of art that she is scared to make: None