Wyeth and more Wyeth this fall in the Pacific Northwest

Everyone in the Pacific Northwest who is a fan of Andrew Wyeth and the rest of the talented Wyeth family is in for a treat this fall with a big exhibit at both the Portland Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum which will be running concurrently starting in October 2017.

The PAM show, The Wyeths: Three Generations, runs from Oct 7, 2017 – Jan 28, 2018 and the SAM show, Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect, runs from Oct 19 2017 – Jan 15 2018.  More information from the website of each museum is listed below.  This will provide an excellent opportunity to view some of the most influential representational painting from the 20th century.  I can't wait to attend both exhibits later this fall!




Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917-2009), On the Edge, 2001, Tempera on panel, Bank of America Collection.

Portland Art Museum

The Wyeths:Three Generations

Works from the Bank of America Collection

OCT 7, 2017 – JAN 28, 2018

The Wyeths are one of America’s foremost artistic families. Their work has captured the admiration of audiences for three generations, spanning the golden age of illustration to mid-century portraiture. Drawing from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection, The Wyeths: Three Generations includes more than eighty paintings and drawings by N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945), his son Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) and his grandson Jamie Wyeth (born in 1946). All showcase a commitment to realism, technical brilliance, and narrative sensibility.

 Patriarch N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) was one of the country’s foremost illustrators at the turn of the twentieth century. His ability to beautifully traverse fantasy and realism made him one of the most versatile American artists of his time. N.C.’s son Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) became known for his detailed realism and haunting scenes of American life inspired by the history and beauty of the American northeast.

 Although not as well-known as her brother, Henriette Wyeth (1907-1997) painted striking portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. She is also represented in the exhibition, as is her husband Peter Hurd (1904-1984), who chronicled the landscape of the American West. Lastly, Andrew’s son Jamie (b. 1946) represents the family’s third generation of artists. Jamie, too, utilizes a realistic style, but adds his own twist of magic and mystery to his subjects.

This exhibition is provided by Bank of America’s Art in our Communities®.

MAJOR SPONSORS: Bank of America, Joanne Lilley in memory of Pete Mark

SPONSORS: The Flowerree Foundation, Laura S. Meier in memory of Pete Mark



Andrew Wyeth, Winter 1946, 1946, Tempera on hardboard panel, 31 3/8 x 48 in., North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina, © 2017 Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS).

Seattle Art Museum

Andrew Wyeth:In Retrospect

Simonyi Special Exhibition Galleries

Thu Oct 19 2017 – Mon Jan 15 2018

Enter Andrew Wyeth’s reality. On the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect examines the American master’s 75-year career and offers unexpected perspectives on his art and legacy. Organized in partnership with the Brandywine River Museum, this major exhibition presents over 100 of the artist’s paintings and drawings. It looks back on a century in America when Wyeth confounded critics and deviated from the American art mainstream, but continued to figure prominently in much of the country’s artistic discourse.

 Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect follows the evolution of one of America’s most famous painters by bringing together well-known and rarely seen works. From depictions of his life in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, to the coastal villages of Maine, Wyeth created timeless images of places, people, and things—layered with acute observation and a boundless imagination—all imbued with the artist’s mysterious temperament. Often out of synch with the time, Wyeth’s art challenged the norms of realism and abstraction.

 The exhibition begins in the late 1930s with Wyeth’s breakthrough works of brilliantly colored, boldly gestural, transparent watercolors of the Maine coast. These were soon set aside for the somber-toned and tightly rendered tempera paintings often associated with the artist. They include some of the artist’s most famous paintings, such as portraits of Christina Olson of Maine and Karl Kuerner, his neighbor in Chadds Ford.

 Also on view are the artist’s little known portraits of African Americans, a major focus of Wyeth’s work in the 1950s and ‘60s, followed by work from the 1970s and ‘80s, including the eroticism of the once-secret Helga paintings, and other deeply psychological but lesser known paintings from the Helga years. Finally, the exhibition reflects on images of his later life as he closed the book on his earlier subjects and looked for new ones. It brings to Seattle Wyeth’s last painting, Goodbye, which has not been seen since it was briefly shown to those who attended the artist’s memorial service in 2009.

 Andrew Wyeth investigated the possibilities of the portrait, the figure, and the places we inhabit—shunning narrative and rising above cliché—to convey the very emotions that make us human.

 The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue co-published by Yale University Press.

Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect is co-organized by the Brandywine River Museum of Art and Seattle Art Museum.

On this Date in History, August 24: Birth of Lavinia Fontana, death of Parmigianino

What happened in the arts on this date in history, August 24? Italian Renaissance Painter Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna in 1552, this date also marks the death of the Mannerist painter Parmigianino in 1540.

The Holy Family with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Lavinia Fontana, 1581, LACMA

Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was an Italian Renaissance painter who was born and trained in Bologna, a city which provided more opportunities for women. 

She first studied painting under her father, Prospero, who studied under the famous Giorgio Vasari.  Prospero Fontana also taught Ludovico Caracci.  Later Ludovico and other members of the Caracci family opened one of the first art schools in Europe, the Accademia degli Incamminati in 1580.  Fontana married and had 11 children, her husband Paolo Zappi worked as both her studio assistant and main caretaker for them.  Fontana supported their family through her painting, while this was quite unusual for the time Paolo recognized and supported her great talent as a painter.
 

After Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini became Pope Clement VIII in 1592, she and her family moved to Rome in the early 17th century when he called for her to work for him.  She was very highly regarded, successful and sought after as an artist.

Portrait of a Noblewoman, Lavinia Fontana, 1580,
National Museum of Women in the Arts

Parmigianino (January 11, 1503 – August 24 1540) died on this day in 1540.  Born as Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, he got his nickname as he was from the city of Parma.

Madonna with the Long Neck, Parmigianino, 1534-40, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Italian Mannerist painter known as Parmigianino painted many works, his portraits were quite realistic, but today his most famous painting is a work which has come to be known as the Madonna with the Long Neck.  Mannerism was the style that directly followed the High Renaissance and is known for figures with elongated limbs, bright unnatural colors and asymmetrical, crowded compositions.  The style was considered elegant and was favored by the Medici family, though today it is often thought of as much less harmonious than the High Renaissance.  Mannerist painters were influenced greatly by similar elements within the work of Michelangelo.  Parmigianino's Madonna is one of the most well known Italian Mannerist Paintings.

Gage Georgetown Calling: Art Lecture Series with Emily Pothast

Gage Academy of Art has a new location in Georgetown that opened last fall and starting in 2017 there is a new art history lecture series taught by visual artist, musician, arts writer and curator, Emily Pothast.  Emily will lecture on a wide variety of subjects from Hilma Af Klint to Marcel Duchamp to Albrecht Dürer.  Each hour long lecture will be followed by an hour long art workshop tying in to the subject matter.

Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, 1907

Gage Georgetown Calling: Art Lecture Series with Emily Pothast

Lecturer: Emily Pothast
Third Thursdays
Lecture: 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Studio Workshop: 8:15 P.M. – 9:15 P.M.

September 21 | Hilma Af Klint and the Birth of Abstraction
Historians once believed that Kandinsky was the first European artist to paint truly abstract works. We now know that he was preceded by at least two female artists: the Swedish mystic Hilma af Klint and the even earlier Victorian spiritualist Georgiana Houghton. This lecture introduces the work of these and other often overlooked artists in the context of early 20th century cultural movements.

October 19 | The Secret History of Feminist Self-Portraiture
In the 1980s, the Guerilla Girls asked, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met?” noting that fewer than 5% of the artists in the museum’s collection were women, but 85% of the nudes were female. Art historians have, however, speculated that the proportions of the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf suggest that she might be a self-portrait. Using this possibility as a point of departure, this class will delve into the history of the body in feminist and women’s art, examining how our experience of the gaze shifts when women are in command of their own images.

Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, 1434, National Gallery, London

November 16 | Sacred Geometry for Artists

In addition to their anatomical study of the human form, artists like Jan Van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albrecht Dürer have also studied geometry in an attempt to determine how the mind interprets certain arrangements of shape and form as beautiful. This class starts with the natural world as the basis for proportion, exploring how the underlying ratios of nature have given rise to the field of sacred geometry, with exercises you can use to explore visual mathematics on your own.
 
December 21 | Marcel Duchamp: Étant Donnés and The Large Glass
A household name for his readymades and meta-art antics, Marcel Duchamp’s most complex works—The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (also known as The Large Glass) and the mysterious, posthumously-installed Étant Donnés are far more enigmatic than the one-liners he is best known for. Using Duchamp’s historical context and the detailed diagrams the artist created for both works, this lecture will shed some light on the fascinating relationship between these two extraordinary works of art.
 
January 18 | The Graphic Works of Albrecht Dürer
Once considered the greatest painter in Northern Europe, Albrecht Dürer also wrote the first textbooks in mathematics in the German language. Dürer’s woodcuts and etchings on religious and secular themes reflect the transformative politics of the Protestant Reformation, as well as an interest in science and mathematics that would soon come to eclipse religious thought in Europe. This lecture will serve as an introduction to the graphic art of Albrecht Dürer in its historical context.

February  15 | Eternity in an Hour: An Introduction to the Art of William Blake
Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, the English Romantic painter, printmaker, and poet William Blake created a highly distinctive visual language that delights and confounds viewers to this day. This lecture will serve as an introduction to the visual works of William Blake in the context of his spiritual and poetic writings.



Michelangelo, David, 1501-04, Galleria dell'Accademia (Florence)

 March 15 | The Male Nude

Female nudes may be ubiquitous in the history of art, but a sizable number of male nudes are out there, too, both idealized and unglamorous. This class will serve as an introduction to the history of the male nude in sculpture, painting, and photography.

 April 19 | A Survey of Female Surrealists

Some female surrealists, like Frida Kahlo, are household names. Others, like Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, and Maria Martins, should be. This class will serve as an introduction to themes of surrealism through the work of a diverse group of women artists.

May 17 | Powerful Void: The Life and Work of Lee Bontecou

In the 1960s, Lee Bontecou rose to prominence with her distinctive welded steel and canvas sculptures. Then, in the 1980s, she all but disappeared from the New York art scene, retreating to the Pennsylvania countryside. This class will explore Bontecou’s category-defying life, career, and body of work.