Looking at Jamie Wyeth’s new
exhibit “Farm Work” and comparing it to Andy Wyeth’s visions of farm life one
is reminded of an old car commercial. To borrow from that TV ad, this is not
his father’s exhibit.
“Farm Work” covers a span of
more than 60 years of Jamie Wyeth’s art. It includes a pencil sketch of a
pumpkin he did at age 2 and runs up to new paintings done this year. All
reflect some form of farm life, from “Pole Beans” to “Polecats.”
The latter image is of two
skunks eating the chicken eggs they had raided from Wyeth’s coop. The strength,
intensity and three-dimensional quality of the piece are what many have come to
expect from the third generation Wyeth artist. The image is vivid, the pallet
bold.
Other images, such as “10 W
30,” reflect a period when he was painting chickens in boxes: “If they wouldn’t
go in the box I’d tape them into the box,” he said.
Included in the more than 70
pieces that span the years 1947 to 2011 is the classic “Portrait of a Pig,”
that Wyeth painted in 1970.
One piece done in 2005— “Point
Lookout Farmlife”—shows every animal on the Wyeth farm and includes birds of
prey carrying off their next meal. The image was used on a scarf being sold at
the museum.
In the exhibit catalog Wyeth is
quoted as saying, “Animals just intrigue the hell out of me…really much more
than people.”
During an interview prior to
the exhibit opening he added that he asks himself questions regarding the
animals before he paints them: “Do they fit in my world? Do they do things that
are interesting?”
He also told a story about
painting a ram for the image “Kinzer of Pt. Lookout.” Wyeth said the ram would
walk into the studio and go up the stairs, but refused to walk down. Wyeth had
to carry him down, every day.
In addition to animals, there
are hay bales, buckets, barns and plows depicted. A piece titled “Tin Woodsman”
is of a bucket on a milk container.
A press release from the
Brandywine River Museum quotes Wyeth as saying, “Through this whole farm
obsession of mine, I viewed myself as a latter day Dorothy—my life is filled
with real and imagined characters.”
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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