The ultimate symbol for our times By Sally Grant28th June 2021 For centuries, the window has been used by artists to help make sense of the world – and it's a potent symbol that resonates ever more strongly today, writes Sally Grant. I In View from the Artist's Window (1978), the US painter Alice Neel captured an image familiar to New Yorkers (and other city-dwellers): that of the apartment building across from their own. For Neel, who is the subject of a retrospective currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, such scenes of New York City life drove her art. As she said of the space that was both her home and her studio, "I really live out my front room windows, which face up Broadway from 107th Street. It's like having a street in your living room". With this comment, and this painting, Neel highlighted a motif that has long captivated artists – the view through a window to the outside world.