Betsy James Wyeth (1921–2020) was a designer of complex environments whose lasting legacy in visual art and landscape will be explored for the first time in this exhibition.
Her practice extended to the restoration and adaptive reuse of dozens of historical buildings; the architectural design of new structures; an eclectic collecting practice that shaped highly original interior spaces; and the creation of large-format immersive environmental designs in the service of a consistent vision across two states and decades of practice. By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth tells the story of these astonishing created worlds across hundreds of acres, including, in Maine, Southern Island, Broad Cove Farm, and the linked pair Allen and Benner Islands, and delves most deeply into the story of Chadds Ford’s Brinton’s Mill, a complex composite of eighteenth-century associations through mid-twentieth-century eyes. Drawing from the remarkable and largely unexhibited holdings of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art with important loans from public and private collections, the works of art by her husband Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) that these designs shaped and inspired shed light on the nature of a rich creative partnership. Rare archival materials, still and interactive imagery of the sites Betsy Wyeth shaped, and many of the original objects that defined her interior compositions create a layered experience, allowing for an exploration of her remote and often inaccessible designed environments as never before.
This exhibition is co-organized by Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; and Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, Maine. It is presented simultaneously at the three museums with distinct pieces of this rich story and is accompanied by a hardcover catalogue published by Rizzoli Electa with essays from the curators and over a dozen insiders and experts on Betsy Wyeth’s design legacy.