The iconic works of Andrew Wyeth are some of the most recognizable American paintings of the 20th century, but much of that work has never been seen.
Several previously unexhibited paintings, drawings, and watercolors are now on view in “Andrew Wyeth: Home Places” at the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa. It shows Wyeth, generally regarded as a realist who painted gritty, melancholic scenes of rustic American life, as a modern abstract artist.
“One of the not-so-secret agendas of this exhibition is getting beyond the received wisdom that Andrew Wyeth was fundamentally conservative, backwards looking, anti-modernist,” said curator Will Coleman, who directs the Andrew and Betsy Wyeth Study Center.
“In these incredible, intimate, powerful watercolors, he was taking up abstraction when it served his goals,” he said. “There are some startlingly abstract and strange compositions in this show.”
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Painting below -Andrew Wyeth, Swifts – First Version, 1991, watercolor on paper. Collection of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art B3122r © Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS)
