"Early Work by Andrew Wyeth, 1939 - 1969" at the Flint Institute of Arts

Written by Richard Bachman Thursday, 28 April 2011 22:57

Flint, MI.- The Flint Institute of Arts presents "Something Waits Beneath it - Early Work by Andrew Wyeth, 1939 - 1969" from May 7th until August 7th. Twenty-year-old Andrew Wyeth won national recognition for his 1937 exhibition of watercolors at New York's Macbeth Galleries. In 1943, critics called him a "magic realist," recognizing the often hard-to-define emotional nuances of his precisely rendered paintings. For over 60 years, in watercolor, tempera and drybrush, Wyeth has portrayed the places and moods of eastern Pennsylvania and coastal Maine. This group of early works is replete with the artist's imagery of weathered architecture, subtleties of landscape and light and unexpected viewpoints.

Ranging from casually glimpsed to deeply studied, Wyeth's scenes are born of close observation, memory, and mastery of line and color, interwoven with his personal experience and feelings. Something Waits Beneath It—Early Work by Andrew Wyeth, 1939–1969 is an intimate exhibition of early and seldom seen works by the young Andrew Wyeth, including watercolors of coastal Maine and eastern Pennsylvania made from 1939 through the 1960s. Illustrated letters, watercolors, and ink sketches, reveal the private observations of the artist—capturing glimpses of napping dogs, a bowl of holly, a nearby stream, a country kitchen. It is these very objects, animate and inanimate, that often disappear from finished paintings that provide the mystery infusing so much of Wyeth's art.


Andrew Newell Wyeth (July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Andrew Wyeth was the youngest of the five children of illustrator and artist N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth and his wife, Carolyn Bockius Wyeth. Andrew was home-tutored because of his frail his father being the only teacher that he had. In the 1920's Wyeth's father had become a celebrity and the family often had celebrities as guests, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Pickford. Wyeth started drawing at a young age. He was a draftsman before he could read. By the time he was a teenager, his father brought him into his studio for the only art lessons he ever had. N.C. inspired his son's love of rural landscapes, sense of romance and artistic traditions. Although creating illustrations was not a passion he wished to pursue, Wyeth produced illustrations under his father's name while in his teens. With his father’s guidance, he mastered figure study and watercolor, and later learned egg tempera from his brother-in-law Peter Hurd.

He studied art history on his own, admiring many masters of Renaissance and American painting, especially Winslow Homer. In October 1945, his father and his three-year-old nephew, Newell Convers Wyeth II (b. 1941), were killed when their car stalled on railroad tracks near their home and was struck by a train. Wyeth referred to his father's death as a formative emotional event in his artistic career, in addition to being a personal tragedy. Shortly afterwards, Wyeth's art consolidated into his mature and enduring style.  His son, Jamie Wyeth, followed his father's and grandfather's footsteps, becoming the third generation of Wyeth artists. N.C. Wyeth was an illustrator famous for his work portrayed in magazines, posters and advertisements. He also created illustrations for books such as "Treasure Island" and "The Last of the Mohicans." Andrew would be the role model and teacher to his son Jamie that his father N.C. had been to him. Their story and artistic history is told in James H. Duff's "An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art." On January 16, 2009, Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness. He was 91 years old.


The Flint Institute of Arts has served an important role in the life of the Flint community since its founding in 1928 and today, continues to play a major role in the growth and revitalization of the city of Flint. Through its exhibitions, interpretive programs, film screenings, concerts, lectures, family events and educational outreach programs, the FIA serves more than 120,000 adults and children annually from all over southeast Michigan. The selection and presentation of exhibitions and related programming is at the heart of the FIA’s mission which is to advance the understanding and appreciation of art for all through collections, exhibitions, and educational programs. The FIA has been accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1972 and in 2002 the FIA’s collection was designated a National Treasure by the Presidents Committee on the Arts. In 2007, the FIA received the Governor’s Award for Arts and Cultural Organization.  The FIA’s 150,000 sq. ft. facility is a unique space with more than 25,000 sq. ft. of gallery space, a large light-filled and welcoming entrance and lobby area with visitor amenities including a café and gift shop, an Art School, a library, a theater ideal for presentations, films, and lectures, a video gallery, and a large "great hall," seating more than 200 for events of all kinds. The FIA maintains a collection of nearly 7,500 objects, sustains a membership of 3,200, registers 1,700 students from pre-school age to senior citizens in Museum Art School studio classes, and presents school programs to 25,000 K-12 students annually. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.flintarts.org

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