Andrew Wyeth : in retrospect

Format:

Book

Title:

Andrew Wyeth : in retrospect

Uniform Title:

Andrew Wyeth (2017)

ISBN:

9780300223958

Publication:

Seattle : Seattle Art Museum, [2017]

Physical Description:

239 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 30 cm

General Note:

"Published by the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum in Association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London."

Contents:

Marking Time, 1917-1949 -- Generations, 1950-1967 -- Couples, 1968-1988 -- Reflection, 1989-2009.

Summary:

"Andrew Wyeth painted the landscapes and people in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he grew up, and in mid-coast Maine, where he spent each summer--places that would inspire him for over seven decades. This centennial exhibition is a fitting moment to trace the threads that weave through the art of Andrew Wyeth, which never failed to engage viewers and confound critics through the long twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.

Personal Subject:

Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009-Exhibitions.

Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009 (OCoLC)fst01734200

Genre:

Added Author:

Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009. Works. Selections.

Added Corporate Author:

Yale University Press,

Brandywine River Museum of Art,

Seattle Art Museum,

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	759.13 Andrew 2017	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

An insightful and essential new survey of Wyeth's entire career, situating the milestones of his art within the trajectory of 20th-century American life

This major retrospective catalogue explores the impact of time and place on the work of beloved American painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). While previous publications have mainly analyzed Wyeth's work thematically, this publication places him fully in the context of the long 20th century, tracing his creative development from World War I through the new millennium.

Published to coincide with the centenary of Wyeth's birth, the book looks at four major chronological periods in the artist's career: Wyeth as a product of the interwar years, when he started to form his own "war memories" through military props and documentary photography he discovered in his father's art studio; the change from his "theatrical" pictures of the 1940s to his own visceral responses to the landscape around Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his family's home in Mai≠ his sudden turn, in 1968, into the realm of erotic art, including a completely new assessment of Wyeth's "Helga pictures"--a series of secret, nude depictions of his neighbor Helga Testorf--within his career as a who≤ and his late, self-reflective works, which includes the discussion of his previously unknown painting entitled Goodbye , now believed to be Wyeth's last work.

Author Notes

Patricia Junker is the Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum. Audrey Lewis is curator at the Brandywine River Museum of Art.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This retrospective of American artist Andrew Wyeth's career coincides with the centennial of his birth and an exhibition organized by the Brandy Wine River Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Seattle Art Museum. Curators Junker and Lewis, along with several contributing authors, explore the defining periods of Wyeth's personal and artistic development. Early influences of note include Wyeth's upbringing in a household that valued creative, unstructured play; the specter of WWI in the work of his father, artist N.C. Wyeth; and his father's premature death, the result of a train accident. Essays address Wyeth's focus on rural Maine and Pennsylvania, as well as the artist's preoccupation with two families-the Kuerners and the Olsons, Christina Olson being the subject of his best-known work, Christina's World. Wyeth's interests in painting African-American subjects, outsider figures, and the solitude of rural America set the artist apart from his contemporaries, as does his integration of uncanny elements into otherwise realist works. Discussions of Wyeth's erotic portraiture and his muses further contrast the artist's "underground" identity with his more-public persona. With many paintings reproduced on full-page spreads, this is a welcome addition to a Wyeth library. Color illus. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

This volume is the catalogue for a 2017-18 exhibition mounted first at the Brandywine River Museum of Art and then at the Seattle Art Museum. The introduction considers Wyeth's life work, emphasizing early galleries and exhibitions. Each of the four chronological sections includes a general introduction by Junker (curator, Seattle Art Museum) and one or two essays on a particular theme--for example, in part 1 (which covers 1917-49) there is an essay on WW I; in part 2 (1950-67) an essay on islands; in part 3 (1968-88) an essay on the Kuerners and the Olsons; and in part 4 (1989-2009) an essay on magic realism in Wyeth's late work. The volume concludes with a chronology (1917-2010) and a selected bibliography. Many of the works included are from private collections and museums and seldom seen. Though this catalogue is chronological, it is not intended as a biographical treatment; for that readers should seek out Richard Meryman's Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life (CH, Mar'97, 34-3690), which remains the best biography of the artist. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. --William L. Whitwell, Hollins College, formerly

Library Journal Review

This survey of the work of American realist painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is published in connection with an exhibition appearing at Pennsylvania's Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum for the centennial of Wyeth's birth. Sympathetic essays by eight scholars discuss aspects of the artist's biography and career as well as popular and critical reaction to his work, all of which depict subjects at Chadd's Ford, PA, or coastal Maine. A well-chosen selection of Wyeth's most famous paintings, along with less often reproduced pieces, illustrates the essays. Among a large body of Wyeth scholarship, including many exhibition catalogs and several previous book-length works, most of these essays cover familiar ground, such as his family legacy, his portraits of neighboring families over decades, and his once-secret erotic paintings. Some writings also delve into the importance of World War I imagery to -Wyeth, his potentially problematic relationship with African American subjects, and the critical reception of his art in Japan. -VERDICT An updated but mostly familiar look at a renowned artist, suitable for both art lovers and scholars.-Kathryn Wekselman, Cincinnati © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.