Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic

[Dennis H]

If you have the opportunity to see the Wyeth retrospective, either at the High Museum in Atlanta or afterwards at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it will be well worth your effort.
I'm helping lead a tempera painting workshop at the High in conjunction with the exhibition, but I only had the chance yesterday to visit the exhibition. It's quite impressive. Many of the works are displayed without glass, allowing you to really examine the surface. The show comprises works from the '30s to very recent paintings. There are numerous familiar paintings, but just as many that I had never seen in person or in reproduction. The checklist is around 100 objects, including drawings and watercolors.
I came away with a changed perception of Wyeth's art and a deepened appreciation for our medium!
It closes in Atlanta Feb 26. Opens in Philly March 29 and runs through July 16.
Dennis

[alexgarcia]

I just got the book for the exhibition and it is excellent. The reproductions are very good, it has some paintings I have never seen. I do wish however that I lived closer to either venue, so I could take in the show.

The workshop sounds great too.

[JeanM]

I went to the High Museum in Atlanta today to see the Wyeth show. It's beautiful. His work is powerful and yet sensitive, monochromatic and yet colorful. In my opinion his use of the medium is painterly. In an original Tooker one can see the layers upon layers of careful cross-hatching done with tiny brushes. I did see some of this in the skin of Wyeth's models. Wyeth's treatment of texture is masterful. I came away from this show with a new admiration for Wyeth's art. His symbolisn speaks to me__very elegiac. Our sojourn on this earth is short and then we return to dust.
One disappointment: they were all out of the DVDs.

[jason_maranto]

I saw the show in early January and it took me several weeks to recover... my confidence as an artist was severly shaken after seeing the work up close and personal -- I have many books on Wyeth and thought myself to be quite familiar with his output -- I discovered there is no substitute for being in the same breathing space as these truly magnificent works.

That said I found much of his more recent work to be the most inspiring as it gives me permission to utilize much greater freedom with respect to technique in this medium than I would have thought... with VERY nice results.

My favorite work being "the carry" as seen athttp://www.andrewwyeth.com/... that work just floored me.


Jason.

[JeanM]

Jason, I feel like you. I have been much too restricted in my technique. I am going to try and loosen up. My work has always been small and icon-like, inspired by the Northern Renaissance artists' work. The medium of ET has room for many expressions. Wyeth is true to his personal experience. I found it to be honest. I think that is what we should strive for as artists.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone! First off, I want to introduce myself - I'm Monica. I've been a watercolor painter for the past ten years, but lately I've been thinking about a change. From what I've read, it sounds like egg tempera may be just my kind of medium... Your site is truly a goldmine of information, and you've all been a big help as I plan my strategy - so thank you!

I'm also a Philly girl, and I thought this bit of info in a story on the Wyeth exhibit (which opened yesterday at the PMA) might interest you all. It's from yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer, front page story "As Show Opens, Art Museum Hopes for Crowds":

"...one Wyeth work with major emotional resonance is not in the show: Christina's World, the 1948 tempera that is not only Wyeth's most famous work but an iconic 20th-century American image.

The work is close enough, owned by and on view at the Museum of Modern Art, and that museum's administration was willing to lend it to the show, d'Harnoncourt [director of the PMA] said, but it is too fragile to travel.

"It really is a condition issue," she said. "It's a fabulous picture, and it should stay in the best possible condition, so when a conservator tells me that it shouldn't travel, I just go with it."

A Museum of Modern Art spokeswoman declined to discuss, on the record, the condition of the painting, although it was apparently well enough to leave home in 2000 when it traveled to the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine."

I haven't seen the painting in quite a while. Have any of you? I hope the situation isn't drastic...

[David McKay]

Hi Monica:

Welcome to the site, and thanks for the info. I saw Christina's World last summer and it looked fine to me, although a little out of place. David

[Anonymous]

Hi David,
Glad to hear it's looking ok; I suppose the museum's just being very cautious. And I certainly understand what you mean about "out of place"!