"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, Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art Emerita, Seattle Art Museum
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, but extended through August 9, 2024 the exhibition features 25 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.
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Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)Bradford's House, 1939Signed at lower right: Andrew WyethWatercolor on paper17½ x 21½ inches
44.5 x 54.6 cm© Wyeth Foundation for American Art/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NYA deeper, richer color appears in the latest works . . . Wyeth’s subject interest is the salty Maine fishing life, an environment in which he lives himself. A cove, a schooner wrecked or under sail, lobster traps, seashore farms, and other ocean-edge glimpses of color are starting points for his pictures. The artist’s technique defies formula; though it is in the tradition set moving by Winslow Homer, it is instinctive in its operation under Wyeth’s hand.—Art Digest, 1939
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I work in drybrush when my emotion gets deep enough into a subject. So I paint with a smaller brush, dip it into color, splay out the brush and bristles, squeeze out a good deal of the moisture and color with my fingers so that there is only a small amount of paint left. Then when I stroke the paper with the dried brush, it will make various distinct strokes at once, and I start to develop the forms of whatever object it is until they start to have real body . . . Underneath that built-up dry paint is a luxurious wash and that’s why it works . . . Drybrush is layer upon layer. It is what I would call a definite weaving process.
—Andrew Wyeth
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Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Kuerner's Spring House, 1981
Signed and inscribed at upper left: Kuerner's Spring House / A. Wyeth
Pencil on paper
11 x 13½ inches
27.9 x 34.3 cm© Wyeth Foundation for American Art/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
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Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Grindstone, 1981Signed at lower left: Andrew WyethWatercolor on paper20½ x 29½ inches
52.1 x 74.9 cm© Wyeth Foundation for American Art/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NYSOLD
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If you would enjoy learning more about the available works, please contact Alana Ricca at (212) 879-8815, or alana@schoelkopfgallery.com. We look forward to being in touch.
