The Veteran in a New Field

As a kid, frequent visits to London for the family were all the fun, but dreaded trips to the Tate Modern made for the gloomiest of days.

On my most recent trip in October 2022, a visit to the Tate Modern was inevitable. In the previous two years, I noticed a shift in the music I listened to and the entertainment I consumed. My tastes were changing.

When I stepped into Winslow Homer's realism exhibition it made me realize the beauty that was a part of art and history. Growing up I disregarded art and history, and I made claims about its lack of sustenance. But, Winslow's early work which focused very much on the American Civil War was a change of pace from the dopamine-fueled avenues of social media. In a single frame, Winslow told powerful stories.

The painting you see above is called "The Veteran in a New Field" and depicts a union solider after the war (his jacket tossed aside in the bottom right). The solider is harvesting his crop in a new field and the painting describes the tension with his old field, the battlefield. While the harvest signifies renewal, the sycthe envokes the Grim Reaper.

It was only when I gave Winslow's work my full attention did I appreciate the granular detail in which a story was told. This trip to the Tate Modern was unlike any other, I wasn't counting the time to the exhibitions end, but rather I counted the emotion his work engulfed me in. In the interest of summarizing my own thoughts,

I've come to realize that art is...

1. A change of pace in today's world
2. A medium for story telling
3. Enjoyed when your full attention is given to it