Featuring more than 100 works, this major retrospective examined six decades of the artist's career and charted the evolution of his creative process from his earliest childhood drawings through recurring dreams inspired by the people, places and objects that populate his world.
The third generation in a renowned family of artists, Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946) has blazed his own path. The exhibition included paintings, works on paper, illustrations, and two recent sculptural works.
Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, the exhibition offered a sense of the artists's development over 60 years, from portraits made during his time in New York to landscapes of the worlds he inhabits in Chadds Ford and Maine. Wyeth's family context was explored with works including childhood drawings and his earliest portraits—created in his father's and grandfather's studios, where he worked under the tutelage of his Aunt Carolyn. Thematically arranged, Jamie Wyeth included portraits of subjects such as John F. Kennedy, Wyeth's wife, Phyllis, and Rudolf Nureyev, shown alongside a selection of preparatory drawings and studies that offered a window into the artist's immersive approach to portraiture.
The exhibition also featured landscapes of the Brandywine Valley and Maine—especially the islands of Tenants Harbor and Monhegan—still lifes of pumpkins (a fascination from his youth) and the many animals and birds that are part of his family and surroundings. The exhibition was accompanied by an extensively illustrated catalogue and traveled to two additional venues.
At the Brandywine River Museum of Art, the exhibition was sponsored by Natalie and Herb Kohler on behalf of Kohler, Co., and by David and Lisa Spartin.
The national tour is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sponsored by Bank of America.
