October 7, 2020

There’s always been talk about art imitating life and life imitating art. But for Karl Kuerner, they’re both the same.

“Painting is life. Period. Exclamation point,” he said during a recent interview.

Kuerner’s book, “Beyond the Art Spirit,” was released earlier this year but the COVID-19 pandemic forced many things to close, including the Brandywine River Museum of Art, which had planned a book signing in March. He gave a talk on the book via Zoom last month when the museum hosted a virtual discussion with the Chadds Ford artist.

The title is based on the book “The Art Spirit” by artist Robert Henri. Part of what Henri imparted before his death in 1929, is that the art and artist are one and the same at the time of the brushstroke, of the art and the artist being one. Art is the expression of the artist’s spirit, Henri believed.

“Beyond the Art Spirit” keys on Kuerner’s relationship with the famous art siblings Carolyn and Andy Wyeth, both of whom mentored him during his early development as an artist and continued until the death of each of the siblings.

It could be said that the Wyeths fueled Kuerner’s art spirit with positive criticism and, as Kuerner put it, teaching him life lessons which, for the artist, means being in the moment of the creative process.

Kuerner’s relationship with the Wyeth family began when he was 13, he said. His father had taken some of his early pieces to Carolyn Wyeth, and she agreed to see the youngster.

As Kuerner tells the story, “She looked at them and told me to ‘Go home and paint something that means something to you.’”

He laughed when asked what that meant to him at the time. “I was still trying to figure out how to throw a curveball,” he said. “But I think it made me look within myself…It helped me look within myself a lot more.”

Art was not the center of Kuerner’s attention at that age, but as time wore on and his art developed, he incorporated that advice into his paintings. And it blended with things Andy Wyeth told him, to observe and to “Paint what you know.”

And Kuerner took that advice to heart after — as an 18-year-old — asking the famous painter if it would be OK for him to paint his family’s farm.

“It was his turf, our property,” Kuerner said, explaining that even though the farm belonged to the Kuerner family, its artistic nature belonged to Andy.

‘That’s what I thought. He was an icon. He was world renown already. He laughed at me when I asked him. And then he looked at me and said, ‘If you see it through, you’ll have your own voice.’”

He took that to mean to follow through.

“’If you really want to be an artist, you’ll follow through with it. You’ll continue to paint, to explore how you see your own family’s life. You’re recording your own life history,’ Andy said.”

Another takeaway from his relationship with Andy and Carolyn is that they never talked down to him, always treated him as a fellow artist not as a kid.

“It wasn’t do this or do that; it wasn’t teacher-to-student. We were on the same plane, artist to artist, peer to peer,” he said, but added a story from later in life when he was in his mid-20s and had an exhibit at the Newman Galleries.

“The director there came up to me and said, ‘You really don’t realize how good you are, but remember you’re still in diapers.’ Now, though I’ve gotten into pullups, so I’m pretty good,” Kuerner said with a chuckle. “But at 18, 25. 45, you’re always growing.”

Another piece of advice from Carolyn Wyeth included, “Be passionate about what you paint, not just about painting.” Kuerner has incorporated that into his work, blending it with painting what he knows. In addition to scenes from around the farm, including those of his father working, his late wife, current significant other, and animals, especially cats. And woven through his work is humor and imagination.

In developing his philosophy of life and art, Kuerner has some aphorisms of his own, those pithy statements that reveal fundamental truths. Many are in the book.

“To avoid reality, I paint my own,” which he said comes down to one word — imagination. “You see something, and then you add who you are to it.”

“Inspiration from animals.” Kuerner said they’re souls. And his preference is for cats.

“I love cats. Cats are the most generous animal you could ever have. They let me buy their food. They let me pay the taxes. They let me serve them. In payment, they pose for me.”

“Be open to what comes your way,” is another of his aphorisms. He said, “If you’re not open to them, they will go away.”

As art and life blend for Kuerner, so do imagination and humor.

“The world is your imagination,” he said, and “Without a sense of humor, you’re missing a part of your creativity.”

For Kuerner, the “art spirit” is “giving yourself permission to put your soul into a painting.”

What lies beyond that? “Observation. Opportunity. There are no walls where you have to stop.”

“Beyond the Art Spirit” is available at the Brandywine River Museum of Art and at Barbara Moore Fine Art Gallery in Chadds Ford Township.