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Andrew Wyeth, Her Room, 1963, tempera, copyright Andrew Wyeth, collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum
Wyeth: An American Legacy
Works from the Farnsworth Art Museum
March 27 - May 2, 2010
Sponsored by 
The artwork of the Wyeth family—one of America’s most prestigious art families—will be the focus of the exhibition Wyeth: An American Legacy, Treasures from the Farnsworth Art Museum this spring at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. For three generations, the Wyeths have created iconic art that inspires the imagination and admiration of America. Wyeth: An American Legacy will present nearly fifty paintings, drawings, and illustrations by N.C (Newell Converse) Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and his grandson Jamie Wyeth. The works, spanning 100 years of creative output, reveal the breadth of the Wyeth family’s prodigious talent and illuminate both common themes within the works and the artists’ individual styles.
N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945) has long been considered one of the nation’s leading illustrators. In the early 1900s, he studied with illustrator Howard Pyle in Delaware. In 1911, he built a house and studio in nearby Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Later, he bought a sea captain’s house in Maine and in 1931 built a small studio, which he shared with his son Andrew and his daughters.
Andrew Wyeth (1917—2009) is one of the United States’ most popular artists, and his paintings follow the American Realist tradition, which includes Winslow Homer. He was influenced by the works of Homer, whose watercolor technique he admires, as well as by the art of Howard Pyle and his father, N. C. While Andrew paints recognizable images, his use of line and space often imbued his works with an underlying abstract quality.
Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), like his father and grandfather, has painted subjects of everyday life, in particular the landscape, animals, and people of Pennsylvania and Maine. In contrast to his father—who paints with watercolor, drybrush, and tempera—Jamie works in oil and mixed media, creating lush painterly surfaces.
The Farnsworth Art Museum holds the largest repository of Wyeth family artwork dealing specifically with their reflections on the people and landscapes of Maine. In addition, the Farnsworth also operates the Wyeth Center, dedicated to the research, collecting and exhibition of the Wyeths in Maine. The Museum is also caretaker of the Olson House, made famous by Andrew’s painting, Christina’s World, of one of its owners.
The works of Wyeth: An American Legacy, Treasures from the Farnsworth Art Museum were hand-selected by FWMoA staff from the Farnsworth’s collections and represent the first time these works will be shown together in the Midwest.
Members Only Preview Evening
Free
Cash bar
Friday, March 26, 2010
5:30pm
Silver level members and above will be treated to a special presentation by Michael Komanecky, Curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in the upstairs lecture hall.
7pm
Members of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art are cordially invited to a special lecture by Victoria Wyeth, grand-daughter of Andrew Wyeth featuring the little known facts and photos from America’s first family of Art!
RSVP to Brian Wagner 260.422.6467 or wagner@fwmoa.org prior to March 19, 2010.
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