In the last week, the term “social distancing” has rocketed into the vocabulary as life in much of the United States goes into lockdown. We’ve had a lot of time to talk to ourselves about the whole thing.

Here are a few choice artworks from the past that give a taste of what the new world of “distancing” feels like, in no particular order.

Pipilotti Rist, Open My Glade (Flatten) (2017)

George Tooker, Landscape With Figures (1965–66)

Remedios Varo, Papilla Estelar (1958)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Veronica Veronese (1872)

Francesca Woodman, Self Portrait with Self Timer (1979)

Tilda Swinton, in “The Maybe” at the Serpentine Gallery

Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich at the Met Gala (2017)

A$AP Rocky, Lab Rat (2018)

David Hockney, Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott (1968-69)

Marina Abromovic and Ulay, Rest Energy (1980)

Dennis Osadebe, Diary (2018)

Edward Hopper, Morning Sun (1952)

Andrew Wyeth, Christina Olson (1947)

Robert Henri, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1916)

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