The Outer — from the Inner (Emily Dickinson's bedroom, dusk)

Skip to main content
© Spencer Finch. Image courtesy of the James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY. For educational purpo…
The Outer — from the Inner (Emily Dickinson's bedroom, dusk)
© Spencer Finch. Image courtesy of the James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY. For educational purposes only.
Artist/Maker (American, born 1962)
Date2018
MediumSeven framed archival inkjet photographs
DimensionsImage (each): 15 × 15 in. (38.1 × 38.1 cm) Sheet (each): 15 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (39.4 × 39.4 cm) Frame (each): 17 5/8 × 17 5/8 × 1 5/8 in. (44.8 × 44.8 × 4.1 cm) Overall (running length): 17 5/8 in. × 12ft. 3 in. (44.8 cm × 3m 73.4 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2019.9.a-g
Not on view
Description"Finch has long been inspired by Dickinson’s poetry, and admires what he calls her “super sensitivity” to the world around us. Over the summer [of 2018], the artist re-read all 1,789 poems that Dickinson wrote in her lifetime. Like Dickinson, Finch is interested in making the abstract tangible and defining experience without confining it, while simultaneously acknowledging the limits of observation and the impossibility of objective memory. Many of the drawings in this show explore the ephemeral and fundamentally ineffable qualities of light and color in the same New England landscape that shaped Dickinson’s elliptical language... The Outer — from the Inner (Emily Dickinson’s bedroom, dusk), a suite of seven photographs created in Dickinson's Amherst bedroom, captures the view through her window as the sun sets. The photographs follow the window’s transformation from a transparent pane of glass into a mirror. Over the course of the day, the initial view of the Massachusetts woods outside gradually gives way to a reflection of the poet’s bedroom inside. The work echoes an earlier photographic series Finch completed in his Gowanus studio—drawing parallels between the poet’s bedroom and the artist’s studio as similar sites of contemplation and artistic fecundity." (SOURCE: James Cohan Gallery, "The Brain is deeper than the sea" press release, https://www.jamescohan.com/exhibitions/spencer-finch3, accessed 3/11/19) Emily Dickinson, The Outer — from the Inner: "The Outer — from the Inner Derives its Magnitude — 'Tis Duke, or Dwarf, according As is the Central Mood — The fine — unvarying Axis That regulates the Wheel — Though Spokes — spin — more conspicuous And fling a dust — the while. The Inner — paints the Outer — The Brush without the Hand — Its Picture publishes — precise — As is the inner Brand — On fine — Arterial Canvas — A Cheek — perchance a Brow — The Star's whole Secret — in the Lake — Eyes were not meant to know."
Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2018
New York, NY (James Cohan Gallery, 291 Grand Street). "The Brain is deeper than the sea," November 2 - December 21, 2018.
Provenance 2019: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from James Cohan Gallery, New York.
Markings None noted.
Signature Not signed.
Inscribed None noted.
© Dickinson Estate. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Edwin W. Dickinson
Date: February - March 1940
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: 2016.8.1
© Renée Stout. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, C…
Renée Stout
Date: 2022
Medium: Oil and acrylic on wood panel
Object number: 2023.3
Photograph by Dave Revette.
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: mid 4th century B.C.E.
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 1929.39
Photograph by Dave Revette.
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: mid 4th century B.C.E.
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 1929.40
Photograph by David Revette.
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: mid 4th century B.C.E.
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 1929.43
(99) The Inner Court of a Damascus Home, Syria
Underwood & Underwood Publishers
Date: c. 1900
Medium: Albumen prints mounted on cardstock
Object number: S2023.1.9
Venice: Piazza San Marco and the Colonnade of the Procuratie Nuove
Unknown artist
Date: 1875-1900
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: S2018.2.137
Un dettaglio del quadro l'Incoronazione della Vergine (A detail of the painting the Coronation of the Virgin)
Fratelli Alinari Fotografi Editori
Date: 1875-1900
Medium: Albumen print
Object number: S2018.2.173
Paradiso, dettaglio del quadro Il Giudizo finale (Paradise, detail of the painting The Final Judgment)
Fratelli Alinari Fotografi Editori
Date: 1875-1900
Medium: Albumen print
Object number: S2018.2.174
Un dettaglio del quadro l'Incoronazione della Vergine (A detail of the painting the Coronation of the Virgin)
Fratelli Alinari Fotografi Editori
Date: 1875-1900
Medium: Albumen print
Object number: S2018.2.175
Photo by John Bentham.
Walter Williams
Date: 1966
Medium: Color woodcut
Object number: 1984.393