Jamie Wyeth Retrospective
This July, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will debut the first retrospective of artist Jamie Wyeth (born 1946). It will examine Wyeth's distinctive approach to realism over the course of six decades, from his earliest childhood drawings through various recurring themes inspired by the people, places, and objects that populate his world. A member of a family of artists, including his grandfather, Newell Convers, “N.C.” (1882–1945), his father, Andrew (1917–2009), and his aunt, Carolyn (1909–1994), Jamie has followed a unique path, training with his aunt after leaving school at age 11, studying in the New York City morgue and at Andy Warhol’s New York studio, The Factory. Jamie Wyeth will include 114 compositions, featuring portraits of subjects such as his wife, Phyllis Wyeth; John F. Kennedy (commissioned by family members after his death); Rudolph Nureyev; and Andy Warhol. The exhibition will also feature landscapes of the worlds he inhabits in the Brandywine River Valley (between Pennsylvania and Delaware) and midcoast Maine—especially Tenants Harbor and Monhegan Island—still lifes of pumpkins (a fascination from his youth) and the many animals and birds that are part of his surroundings. Organized by the MFA, and accompanied by an illustrated publication, the exhibition will travel to three additional venues: Brandywine River Museum of Art, Pennsylvania (January 16–April 5, 2015); San Antonio Museum of Art (April 26–July 5, 2015); and Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Arkansas (July 23–October 4, 2015).
