“Sean Landers: Lost at Sea” exhibition at the Newport Art Museum opens with Landers’ oil painting “Lighthouse Keepers in Shadows” mounted at the entrance to a narrow corridor. Like a preamble for what is to come, this virtually black-and-white painting sets the tone for the entire exhibition.
Two men — presumably the keepers of the lighthouse — are so dark, they seem silhouettes against the lighthouse and wintery skies behind them. They face out towards us in the brooding, ominous atmosphere, and though the ocean is unseen we sense they are looking intently at us in a vast ocean that surrounds us. It is as if we might be somewhere lost at sea. Landers’ painting calls to mind Caspar David Friedrich’s 1817 work, “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.” Although Friedrich’s single dark figure faces away from us in contemplation of a visible expanse of rough seas, both paintings evoke the sense of mystery, foreboding and the power of the sea.
Just beyond the painting, a series of small wood engravings made from drawings by Winslow Homer line the corridor walls. These are not a random selection of generic nautical works from the Newport Art Museum’s permanent collection, but specific works selected by Landers himself. The small engravings on paper are vastly different in style and scale from Landers’ massive and contemporary oil paintings, and this enhances the narrative. The exhibition is replete with references to artists of other generations suggesting that human emotions reach across chronological boundaries and stylistic differences.