The Farnsworth Art Museum proudly presents “Andrew Wyeth: 1982,” an exhibition showcasing a pivotal year in the artist’s life and work. This particular year marked a transition to his later period as the artist turned the legal age of retirement, embraced new subjects, dealt with significant loss, and experienced a traumatic theft of his works. The exhibition is on view from September 21, 2024, through March 23, 2025.
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For Wyeth, 1982 was a time of transition. He increasingly moved away from his longtime model and inspiration, Helga Testorf, embraced a new regular model, Ann Call, and confronted the imminent loss of his lifelong friend and subject, Walt Anderson, in making the major tempera Adrift. Other events of the year included the theft of artworks from his home in Pennsylvania, high-profile sales in the art market, and the development of a sophisticated art reproduction enterprise to meet the strong demand for his work. Despite this demand, not all art critics were supportive of his work.
“We get a rare opportunity to zero in on one transformative year of Andrew Wyeth, which marked a significant shift in his artistic focus and personal challenges,” said Christopher Brownawell, Executive Director of the Farnsworth Art Museum. “Visitors will gain deeper insights into Wyeth’s evolving focus and the profound influence of his surroundings.”
During this year, Andrew Wyeth created just three easel paintings using the meticulous and
time-intensive medium of egg tempera. Among these, “Adrift” stands out for its profound significance, capturing the declining health and impending death of his lifelong friend and model, Walt Anderson, in a composition that eerily evokes a mythical Viking ship burial.
Never sold and kept within the family, the making of this painting was the result of thirty-one detailed studies, a selection of which will be presented in this exhibition for the first time. “Adrift” showcases Wyeth’s dedication to portraying Anderson’s vulnerability at sea alongside the mysterious absence of the tempera “Moon Madness,” which Imelda Marcos acquired during the dictatorship of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, in the Philippines and remains missing despite considerable repatriation efforts since the end of that regime, highlighting the unexpected connections with national and global events that surround the creative work of 1982.
1982 was a challenging year for the American art market. Still, Wyeth’s work remained consistently in demand, including the sale of “Marsh Hawk” (1964) at the end of 1981, receiving the highest price ever paid for a living American artist at auction. This phenomenon was fairly consistent throughout his life and, in no small part, the product of Betsy James Wyeth’s careful management of his public perception and market value. This management is evident from the surviving copies of auction catalogues of 1982 that were extensively annotated in her hand, of which a selection will be presented in the exhibition.
“We’re delighted to partner with the Wyeth Foundation for American Art and collaborate with Wyeth Curator William Coleman, PhD,” says Chief Curator Jaime DeSimone. ”This partnership allows us to tell untold stories that widen our perspective of Andrew Wyeth’s career and his working relationship with his wife, Betsy.”
The project explores what one can learn from focusing on a particular year in an artist’s life. Visitors are invited to reflect on the cultural and global events that took place during the creation of these artworks, as well as events in their own lives during that period. The presentation also examines how an artist’s practice changes when facing mortality and enduring creativity across the seasons and sites of a climactic but representative year at work.
The exhibition opens to the public at the Farnsworth Art Museum on September 21, 2024, followed by a community celebration on First Friday, October 4, 2024. For more information, visit farnsworthmuseum.org.
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