Hyperallergic

Secrets of a Pennsylvania Dutch Interior

Like a salacious game of eye-spy, Anne Buckwalter’s paintings invite viewers to share in a semi-secret rendezvous.

Annabel Keenan | October 8, 2023

When Europeans immigrated to southeastern Pennsylvania over 300 years ago, they brought with them an aesthetic vernacular that became known as Pennsylvania Dutch folk art. The style—characterized by decorative repeated motifs, including flowers, stars, and birds depicted in a colorful, flat manner — adorned textiles, wood furniture, and household objects. The tradition conveyed the agrarian culture’s appreciation of nature, family, craftsmanship, and domesticity. In Anne Buckwalter’s solo show, Reins on a Rocking Horse at Rachel Uffner Gallery, Pennsylvania Dutch folk art covers every surface of the artist’s quaint interior scenes. From the tableware to the wallpaper, furniture, and bedding, Buckwalter fills each painting with elaborate patterns and motifs, but here they feature unexpected, erotic twists.

Rendered in crisp gouache on smooth panel, the paintings on view (all 2023) mirror the flatness of the folk art tradition from which the artist draws inspiration. Each interior resembles a relatively ordinary vignette with clean, orderly rooms and objects neatly arranged. Many are unoccupied, or seemingly so. However, a closer glance reveals evidence of human activity, specifically suggestions of carnal acts in glimpses of sex toys, pornography, and underwear. When people are present, they are seen partially through windows, doorframes, and computer screens, or reflected in mirrors. What happens outside the scope of each work is up to the viewer to decide.

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