Wyeth Exhibit at the Sam

Past due here since the exhibit closed a couple of weeks ago. What a great show! I saw it all the way back on Thanksgiving weekend. My only criticism was the hanging of the show really could have been a little better thought out, there were bottlenecks for viewers that could have been avoided. It was quite crowded, so I could have chose a better time to go as well.

I had only seen Andrew Wyeth's works in ones and twos before, and frankly just a few in person at that. While of course am familiar with him and his family, I really hadn't paid much attention to the medium a lot of tempera and watercolor. I had assume something else.

Here's an early work painted in a very traditional watercolor manner. You can see a number of wet on wet areas and such.

Another early work of "stolen lobster traps at night.

Snow Hill incorporates a number of characters from other works.

Here is one of the tempera/watercolor works. I like the fact that they're painted in way that is a bit untraditional (why not oil?) and in a sense, not a medium you're supposed to do.

This is a wonderful piece! The well-worn drapery is stunning. I love to get a good close-up look at works such as this to try to figure out the steps to completion. What was the underpainting like, which areas were built first, etc.

Of course I needed to include a Helga painting as well.

Anyway, I kind of wanted to include this here, after the fact as a placeholder on this blog for myself to visit at a future date,

Here is a link to a great New York Times article/obituary of Wyeth by Michael Kimmelman