OPENING RECEPTION: 1ST THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2013, FROM 5 - 8PM
Sullivan Goss presents the FIRST EVER WEST COAST GALLERY EXHIBITION FOR ANDREW WYETH, one of America’s best loved and most controversial artists of the 20th century. Wyeth’s fierce fealty to representation was at odds with prevailing trends towards abstraction, but his technical mastery and his Thoreauvian love of nature resonated deeply with both critics and audiences alike.
Born into a family of artists, Andrew Wyeth (19172009) matured as an artist under the watchful eye of his father N.C. Wyeth (18821945), the famous Brandywine School illustrator. Working mostly in the area surrounding Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and South Cushing, Maine, Wyeth developed an aesthetic that speaks to the ruggedness of rural and coastal America, to the poetry of longing and persevering, and to the expansive wonder that is possible when an artist carefully studies even the most banal subjects.
Among Wyeth’s best known works is Christina’s World, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Painted in 1948, it’s stark representation of a woman on the ground facing a farmhouse inspired as much controversy as it did admiration. How could such a finely detailed representational work find its way into an institution revered for its forward looking sensibility in the heyday of the Abstract Expressionist movement?
Among Wyeth’s second most discussed body of work was a secret cache of about 240 paintings and drawings of his German neighbor, Helga Testorf. The gallery is excited to announce that there will be three pictures from the famous “Helga” series.
Andrew Wyeth’s son, Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), followed in his father’s footsteps, painting mainly in the same areas as his father and grandfather. The exhibition at Sullivan Goss will be comprised of twenty works by Andrew Wyeth, and one each by N.C. and Jamie. Many of these works have extensive exhibition histories at such prestigious venues as the National Gallery, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and LACMA, among many others. The three Wyeth generations are scheduled for another exhibition at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont in June of this year.
A Walkthrough of May’s 1st Thursday Offerings
