The South Wind 1917

Curator: Standing here, I feel a surge of…liberation, perhaps? The crisp air, the sense of limitless expanse. It’s very immediate. Editor: What you're responding to so viscerally is likely Curran's deliberate composition in "The South Wind," painted in 1917. Note how the lone figure is placed—defiant almost—against the wide plein-air sky, realized in oil paint. Curator: Yes, 'defiant' captures the spirit. It’s not just the pose, but how the white fabric she holds seems to pull the wind, embodying a sense of command over the elements. There’s a dialogue here, a physical one almost. Editor: A timely painting too. Completed amidst global unrest during the first World War, it’s likely that Curran intended the painting as a form of visual escapism from the hardships of war, by portraying a woman as one with the unbridled forces of nature. Curator: You see, it’s more complex than sheer optimism. Her isolation adds another layer. Is she embracing the world, or is it a solitary vigil? It is both hopeful and slightly melancholic. The Romanticism of the artwork creates space for these competing feelings to occur, so you wonder is it escapism or facing things head on? Editor: The placement definitely suggests intent, inviting viewers to confront or to consider what is within arm’s reach of this Romantic scene. It is important that in 1917 plein air painting would offer the possibility of capturing everyday moments, turning that into an art commodity during wartime may not have seemed odd to those wishing to distract. Curator: And her gaze! It is turned slightly away. What captures her gaze in that distance, which is also our distance, our viewing point. Perhaps that's why I feel drawn in, I’m filling in her experience with my own landscape and feelings of hope, desire and optimism. Editor: Ultimately, I suppose Curran gives us a mirror. “The South Wind”, with its ambiguous spirit and Romantic technique, leaves it up to us. Curator: Indeed. A dance between canvas and the currents of the soul.