CCAA to hold major N.C. Wyeth exhibit

Posted by Press Release on August 30, 2015

This year’s Founders Exhibition of the Chester County Art Association will include 17 paintings by illustrious artist and CCAA Founder N.C. Wyeth. The exhibit will be in CCAA’s Allinson Gallery Oct. 10-18, from 9 a.m.- 8 p.m., and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. on Sundays.

A press release said 16 of these works make up a unique and stunning set, which is on loan from The Hill School in Pottstown, and one very beloved NC Wyeth painting, The Giant, is on loan from the Westtown School.

Each of The Hill School’s 16 paintings illustrates a literary work by an American poet, such as Walt Whitman and Henry Longfellow, and depicts a momentous event in our history. Images of Washington Serving Liberty, Nathan Hale (September 2, 1776), Paul Revere’s Ride, and Warren's Address (June 17, 1775) will grace the gallery.

N.C. Wyeth’s The Giant can be found front-and-center in the cafeteria of the Westtown School. As the largest painting in the Founders Exhibition, CCAA will enjoy the privilege of including it with the same central billing.

N.C. Wyeth was a preeminent early 20^th century painter who helped to establish the "Brandywine tradition" of painting. Also included in the exhibition will be publications by art critic and CCAA founder Christian Brinton, early letters from original CCAA art director William Palmer Lear, and paintings by CCAA charter member George Gillett Whitney. Four paintings by George Whitney will travel from Westtown School along with The Giant.

The Founders Exhibition will mark the 84^th anniversary of the founding of CCAA by Newel Convers Wyeth and his colleagues Dr. Christian Brinton and William Palmer Lear. The Art Association plans to celebrate this exhibition with several ticketed events and lectures from esteemed art experts, including Westtown archivist Mary Uhl Brooks, great granddaughter of N.C. Wyeth, Victoria Wyeth, and Christine Podmaniczky, Curator of N.C. Wyeth Collections at the Brandywine River Museum. For tickets to the exhibition and more information please go to the CCAA website www.chestercountyarts.org or call 610-696-5600.

In the charter to the Chester County Art Association, N.C. Wyeth's colleague Christian Brinton wrote, "The Association merely wishes to acknowledge a sense of sincere obligation upon assuming the task of making Chester County more actively, and courageously, art conscious..,” and since that founding Charter of 1931, CCAA has actively engaged the Chester County art community with classes, exhibits, and art events every year. The first major exhibit by the Association drew more than 4,000 visitors. Horace Pippin, famous artist recently celebrated in "The Way I see It" at the Brandywine Museum of Art, first exhibited at the Chester County Art Association where he was given his first one man show.