There is a reason why the eyes are called the windows to the soul. In art, few elements hold as much emotional, symbolic, and psychological power as the gaze.
Whether the subject looks directly at the viewer, turns away, or offers an ambiguous glance — the eyes become a portal. A portal into selfhood, into truth, into magic.
Across centuries, cultures, and styles, artists have used eyes not simply as facial features, but as active symbols of emotion, perception, and even enchantment.
The Gaze as Mirror
When we look at a portrait, we expect to see — but sometimes, we’re the ones being seen.
A direct gaze in art is often unsettling. It implies awareness, confrontation, intimacy. It turns passive viewing into an emotional mirror. The viewer is no longer just observing — they are being reflected back at.
As French philosopher Jacques Lacan argued, the gaze destabilizes our sense of self. We are not in control when we are looked at — the artwork sees us too.
Eyes as Fracture and Multiplicity
In surreal and symbolic art, multiple eyes (or faces with duplicated gazes) often signify fragmented identity, emotional layering, or hyper-perception.
Such imagery echoes literary themes from Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness writing, where identity is never singular, but always shifting.
Eyes as Spell or Protection
In folklore and esoteric traditions, eyes have always had magical connotations:
The evil eye protects or curses through gaze alone
The all-seeing eye (like the Eye of Providence) symbolizes divine awareness
In Egyptian mythology, the Eye of Horus brings healing and protection
The third eye in spiritual traditions signifies intuition and inner vision
In “MIRAGE” for example, eyes float like masks — stylized, hypnotic, disembodied. They are no longer organs of sight, but symbols of energy and power.
Here, the gaze is spell-like — a visual incantation that holds emotion and intention.
Eyes and the Viewer’s Vulnerability
In his essay “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger writes that in traditional European oil paintings, the subject often owned the gaze — women were painted to be seen. Modern art reverses this: the subject often claims the gaze, making the viewer feel vulnerable, exposed, or even complicit.
The eyes don’t invite the viewer in. They challenge, haunt, or hypnotize. The result? Art that’s not just looked at, but felt.
Eyes in art are not just about seeing — they’re about being seen. They reflect, seduce, accuse, protect. They blur the line between subject and viewer, outer and inner, self and other.
Whether gentle or electric, mystical or confrontational, the gaze in your work holds tremendous symbolic weight.
So next time you feel a pair of painted eyes following you from across the room — don’t look away.
Ask yourself: What part of me is being seen?
