Not Far, in New JERSEY

The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) hosts The Wyeths: Three Generations


Montclair, NJ - For three generations, the Wyeths have created art that captures the imagination and admiration of a wide audience. This exhibition presents more than sixty paintings, drawings, and illustrations by N. C. (Newell Converse) Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and his grandson Jamie Wyeth. The works— from the early 1900s to the present—reveal the breadth of the Wyeth family’s creative output and illuminate both common themes within the works and the artists’ individual styles. On view through 19 July, 2009.

N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945) has long been considered one of the nation’s leading illustrators. In the early 1900s, he studied with illustrator Howard Pyle in Delaware. In 1911, he built a house and studio in nearby Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Later, he bought a sea captain’s house in Maine and in 1931 built a small studio, which he shared with his son Andrew and his daughters. The exhibition includes illustrations for books by Robert Louis Stevenson and Washington Irving as well as historical scenes, seascapes, and landscapes.

Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917) is one of the United States’ most popular artists, and his paintings follow the American Realist tradition, which includes Winslow Homer. He has been influenced by the works of Homer, whose watercolor technique he admires, as well as by the art of Howard Pyle and his father, N. C. While Andrew paints recognizable images, his use of line and space often imbue his works with an underlying abstract quality. The exhibition includes important works from the 1970s and 1980s as well as recent paintings.

Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), like his father and grandfather, has painted subjects of everyday life, in particular the landscape, animals, and people of Pennsylvania and Maine. In contrast to his father—who paints with watercolor, drybrush, and tempera—Jamie works in oil and mixed media, creating lush painterly surfaces. Eighteen paintings represent all periods of his career.

The Wyeths: Three Generations is organized and sponsored by the Bank of America Corporate Art Program. Additional support is provided by Mandee, Annie sez, and Exhibition Angels Bob and Bobbie Constable, Adrian A. Shelby, and Margo and Frank Walter.

The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) collects, preserves, and presents American and Native American art. Its innovative exhibitions and educational programs interpret and explore relationships between these two evolving artistic traditions. The Museum’s exhibitions offer groundbreaking scholarship, fresh thematic approaches, first-time presentations of under-recognized artists, examinations of little-known aspects of major artists’ careers, and an ongoing commitment to the artists and culture of New Jersey. Visit : www.montclairartmuseum.org/