As the countdown approaches for the end of the Jamie Wyeth retrospective at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, hundreds of fans took advantage of the artist’s appearance on Saturday, March 28, some waiting for nearly two hours to collect his signature on the exhibit’s catalogue.
“Jamie Wyeth,” which runs through Sunday, April 5, features more than 100 works that span over six decades of the 68-year-old artist’s career. The exhibit by Wyeth, the third generation of an art dynasty that began with his grandfather N.C. Wyeth and continued with his father, Andrew Wyeth, broke attendance records during its debut at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Since the exhibit opened in Chadds Ford on Jan. 17, it has continued that trend, said Hillary K. Holland, the museum’s director of public relations. She said attendance in March alone rose 200 percent.
“It’s definitely a blockbuster,” said Executive Director Thomas Padon on Saturday as he watched the line of autograph-seekers snake around the building. Several of the museum members standing near him chimed in with their agreement.
Padon said the museum expected a large crowd for the autograph session, and it got one. Some people traveled for several hours to attend the event; many others described a commute of up to an hour. And despite the long wait, they were glad they came.
“It’s very well-organized,” said Beth Haas of Wilmington as she and her husband, Warren Haas, waited to be let into the nearly 200-seat conference room in groups of 20.
During that wait, museum staffers equipped with sticky notes wrote the inscription that people requested and stuck it on the inside of the catalogue. Once inside, each group occupied a row of seats.
After all of the occupants of a row received their autographs, the next cluster traded their seats for a queue along the wall that led to a table where Wyeth sat. In the process, many people engaged in friendly conversation with the folks around them.
Warren Haas, a mathematician, attempted to estimate the wait time after determining that Wyeth was taking about 30 seconds for each autograph, but his calculations quickly broke down as the artist bantered longer with some of the visitors.
Wyeth, who was greeted with applause when he arrived at 1 p.m., showed no signs of fatigue an hour and a half later, smiling and joking with people as they approached the table. Surrounded by more than a dozen black markers, he did acknowledge that his hand was getting tired, and some of the longer messages that people requested had to be truncated.
“He is very, very kind to do this,” Beth Haas said.
Mary Krug of Garnet Valley agreed. Even though she was leaving the next day for a cruise and still had packing to do, she explained that she has volunteered for two years as a docent at the museum and felt a strong connection to the exhibit.
“I absolutely adore this museum,” she said, describing the rigorous and comprehensive training that docents receive. “Everyone here is so wonderful. I’m glad I was able to do this today.”
Responding to Wyeth’s engaging manner, Walt and Margaret Saylor of Berks County asked him if anyone had requested that he write anything weird. They were a bit disappointed when Wyeth said no, but he wondered if he could spice up their greeting by writing something such as “to my lover?”
The Saylors laughed and said they appreciated the attempt but didn’t think it would go over well with their children. “He was so cheerful,” Margaret Saylor said. “He’s a neat guy.”
When “Jamie Wyeth” closes at the Brandywine River Museum of Art on April 5, it will move to the San Antonio Museum of Art (April 26-July 5) followed by the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Arkansas (July 23-October 4). In the meantime, the Brandywine museum is gearing up for its next exhibit. “Horace Pippin: The Way I See It” opens on April 25.
The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, is open daily (except Christmas) from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65+), and $6 for students with ID and children ages 6-12. It is free for children ages 5 and under as well as conservancy members. For more information, visit http://www.brandywinemuseum.org.
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