Review by Choice Review
This volume is the catalogue for a 2017-18 exhibition mounted first at the Brandywine River Museum of Art and then at the Seattle Art Museum. The introduction considers Wyeth's life work, emphasizing early galleries and exhibitions. Each of the four chronological sections includes a general introduction by Junker (curator, Seattle Art Museum) and one or two essays on a particular theme--for example, in part 1 (which covers 1917-49) there is an essay on WW I; in part 2 (1950-67) an essay on islands; in part 3 (1968-88) an essay on the Kuerners and the Olsons; and in part 4 (1989-2009) an essay on magic realism in Wyeth's late work. The volume concludes with a chronology (1917-2010) and a selected bibliography. Many of the works included are from private collections and museums and seldom seen. Though this catalogue is chronological, it is not intended as a biographical treatment; for that readers should seek out Richard Meryman's Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life (CH, Mar'97, 34-3690), which remains the best biography of the artist. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. --William L. Whitwell, Hollins College, formerly
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This retrospective of American artist Andrew Wyeth's career coincides with the centennial of his birth and an exhibition organized by the Brandy Wine River Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Seattle Art Museum. Curators Junker and Lewis, along with several contributing authors, explore the defining periods of Wyeth's personal and artistic development. Early influences of note include Wyeth's upbringing in a household that valued creative, unstructured play; the specter of WWI in the work of his father, artist N.C. Wyeth; and his father's premature death, the result of a train accident. Essays address Wyeth's focus on rural Maine and Pennsylvania, as well as the artist's preoccupation with two families-the Kuerners and the Olsons, Christina Olson being the subject of his best-known work, Christina's World. Wyeth's interests in painting African-American subjects, outsider figures, and the solitude of rural America set the artist apart from his contemporaries, as does his integration of uncanny elements into otherwise realist works. Discussions of Wyeth's erotic portraiture and his muses further contrast the artist's "underground" identity with his more-public persona. With many paintings reproduced on full-page spreads, this is a welcome addition to a Wyeth library. Color illus. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by Library Journal Review
This survey of the work of American realist painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is published in connection with an exhibition appearing at Pennsylvania's Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum for the centennial of Wyeth's birth. Sympathetic essays by eight scholars discuss aspects of the artist's biography and career as well as popular and critical reaction to his work, all of which depict subjects at Chadd's Ford, PA, or coastal Maine. A well-chosen selection of Wyeth's most famous paintings, along with less often reproduced pieces, illustrates the essays. Among a large body of Wyeth scholarship, including many exhibition catalogs and several previous book-length works, most of these essays cover familiar ground, such as his family legacy, his portraits of neighboring families over decades, and his once-secret erotic paintings. Some writings also delve into the importance of World War I imagery to -Wyeth, his potentially problematic relationship with African American subjects, and the critical reception of his art in Japan. -VERDICT An updated but mostly familiar look at a renowned artist, suitable for both art lovers and scholars.-Kathryn Wekselman, Cincinnati © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
