Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 29-July 16, 2006

Philadelphia & Chadds Ford, PA & Wilmington, DE museums to showcase works by Andrew Wyeth, Spring ’06

The Philadelphia Art Museum, the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA and the newly reopened and totally reconceived Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware will be holding simultaneous and complementary Andrew Wyeth exhibits/retrospectives, March 11 – July 16, 2006. These three exhibits will be a really special treat for fans of the artist and a rare opportunity for those unfamiliar with his work to see more of it at one time, in one area, than ever before. Even more special is the fact that two of the museums are in the Brandywine Valley where the artist lives and works.

Andrew Wyeth : A Secret Life
by Richard Meryman

Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic

Philadelphia Art Museum
March 29 – July 16, 2006 A retrospective will takes a fresh look at seven decades of accomplishment by Andrew Wyeth who is linked to the realist traditions of Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and Edward Hopper, but whose work often takes viewers into a “strange and wondrous world”. In Wyeth’s work, objects transform metaphorically into portraits of friends, family, and even the artist himself. The exhibition explores how Wyeth invests these objects with meaning, and how he will sometimes begin with figure subjects and then gradually paint people out of the picture, leaving the objects to tell the stories themselves. Approximately 100 tempera paintings, watercolors, and drawings, many from the personal collection of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth, will be seen or shown together for the first time. Wyeth’s method, based on observation and memory, and his style, which pushes toward simplicity and abstraction, has developed over the decades into increasingly symbolic and surreal imagery. Always popular for his fine-detailed temperas and freely brushed watercolors, Wyeth continues to combine technical mastery and emotional power in his most recent work, shown publicly for the first time in this exhibition.

Andrew Wyeth: Master Drawings from the Artist’s Collection

Brandywine River Museum
March 11 – July 16, 2006 The first exhibition in more than 40 years devoted to Andrew Wyeth’s drawings. Approximately 40 works on paper demonstrate Wyeth’s extraordinary skill as a draftsman and the accuracy with which he sees light and dark, enabling him to model forms while suggesting the very substance and texture of what he sees. This exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue with important commentary by Professor Henry Adams.

“Something waits beneath it”

Early Work by Andrew Wyeth, 1939-1969
Delaware Art Museum
March 29 – July 16, 2006 An intimate exhibition presenting 32 early, seldom seen works by the young Andrew Wyeth, including watercolors and tempera paintings of coastal Maine and eastern Pennsylvania made from 1939 through the 1960s. Eleven illustrated letters, with eighteen watercolor and ink sketches, reveal the private observations of the artist.

Wyeth Hotel Packages

Brandywine Valley hotels and bed & breakfasts will be offering special Wyeth packages including rooms, tickets and other extras for visitors. We will be adding links below as they become available. Click below for details.

Andrew Wyeth Books

Wyeth at Kuerners by Andrew, Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography by Thomas Andrew/Houing Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends by Andrew Wyeth, Betsy Wyeth (Introduction)
Andrew Wyeth : A Secret Life by Richard Meryman
Andrew Wyeth 1st Impressions by Richard Meryman
Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth by Beth Venn, Adam D. Weinberg, Andrew Wyeth, Michael G. Kammen, Whitney Museum of American Art
Wondrous Strange: The Illustrative Art of Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth by N.C. Howard/Wyeth Pyle
An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art by James H. Duff, Thomas Hoving (Contributor), Andrew Wyeth

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