"In 1936, watercolor painting in America reached a new phase, as a new national art form, one with proud historical roots and a new relevance for artists both progressive and traditional. Enter Andrew Wyeth." - Patricia Junker, "Enter Andrew Wyeth," New York: Schoelkopf Gallery, 2024
Andrew Wyeth was 20 when he burst onto the New York art scene. His solo exhibition of works at Macbeth Gallery in 1937 made headlines. It was a sold-out exhibition of watercolors inspired by Maine, a place of deep personal significance to the artist. The Wyeth family is part of the fabric of Maine and Wyeth had spent summers there since childhood. A critic for Art in America wrote in one of many euphoric reviews of the artist’s coming-out exhibition, “Wyeth uses his brush with a really almost spectacular freedom.” This energetic and unbridled approach to watercolor launched Wyeth’s career and fame.
Schoelkopf Gallery is delighted to present Enter Andrew Wyeth, the inaugural exhibition in the gallery’s ongoing programming dedicated to the artist. On view from April 19 to June 28 and extended through August 9, 2024, the exhibition features 20 works in tempera, watercolor, drybrush, and pencil, and examines the stirring emotional resonance of Wyeth’s work. The exhibition is composed of works created between 1939 – the year Wyeth met Betsy, his future wife and steward of his artistic legacy – and 1994. The gallery is honored to be supported in the exhibition by Patricia Junker, Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art Emerita, Seattle Art Museum.
