Published: Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sharing a love for Wyeth's work
The exhibition provides a
window into the master artist's creative process.
By GUY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Andrew Wyeth, perhaps the quintessential American painter, is revered in Japan.
His delicate art, with its careful arrangement of space and spiritual essence, seems to speak directly to the Japanese people, according to Otoyo Nakamura, a Wyeth researcher at the Marunuma Art Park in Saitama, Japan.
The Marunama, an artist's village and education center, has a collection of 238 Wyeth paintings. About half of them have been brought to America as part of a traveling exhibition that will open Thursday at the Butler Institute of American Art.
Nakamura was at the Wick Avenue museum last week to oversee the unpacking and hanging of the exhibit.
"Japanese people really admire Wyeth's painting," Nakamura told the Vindicator. "I've seen them shed a tear while looking at his work."
Wyeth's landscapes have a spiritual quality that connects with the Japanese. "We exchange our mentality with him," said Nakamura, noting that Wyeth's style "reflects out ancient culture of simplicity. It is minimal and quiet, but sensitive and sophisticated."
The Marunama Art Park collects Wyeth's work so that its students can study his technique, said Nakamura.
Rare opportunity
The exhibition at the Butler will appeal to all. "Once people see his paintings, they will love him," said Nakamura.
But because it includes sketches, small studies and preparatory drawings, it also opens a window into Wyeth's creative process.
Dr. Louis Zona, director of the Butler, said the Wyeth exhibit will be "an opportunity to see a master artist up close and personal. It reveals the thought process behind an American genius. Anywhere you go, dozens of artists are trying to paint like Andrew Wyeth."
Zona explained Wyeth's place in the pantheon of great artists and his special appeal.
"Wyeth is the quintessential American artist," said Zona. "He is a storyteller, the Mark Twain of contemporary art. But he doesn't always tell the whole story. He leaves something up to the viewer ...you'll see a woman looking out a window, but you don't know what she sees."
Zona understands why the Japanese feel Wyeth is a kindred spirit. "The Japanese know how to manipulate space, however small. Wyeth is like that. He says a lot with the 'empty' space through his placement of the main objects."
Wyeth's most famous painting is "Christine's World." The 1948 work depicts a young woman crawling on a field that slopes away from a farm house, and is one of the most well-known images in 20th century American art. While "Christine's World" is not a part of the exhibit at the Butler (it hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York), Wyeth's preparatory drawings for the iconic piece are.
About the exhibition
The exhibit — entitled Andrew Wyeth Watercolors and Drawings: Selections from the Marunuma Art Park Collection, Japan — is making its third and final stop at the Butler. It opened at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which organized it. Next, it went to the Gilcrease Museum of American Art in Tulsa, Okla.
Through a fortuitous turn of events, the Butler was able to secure the exhibit. After attending the Wyeth retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art last year, Zona, an admirer of the artist's work, went to the nearby Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., which has a large Wyeth collection.
There, he met Katsushige Susaki, director of the Marunuma Art Park, and Kristin Spangenberg, curator of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Because of his interest, the Cincinnati would later ask Zona if the Butler would care to host the exhibit.
The Butler already has two Wyeth watercolors in its permanent collection. The paintings "Gen. Knox Mansion" (1941) and "Cow Birds" (1988) are displayed next to each other on the museum's first floor.
The paintings are an example of the difference between early Wyeth, with its detailed subject and abstract surroundings, and bold use of color; and the mature Wyeth, with its precise realism and muted colors.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The exhibition provides a
window into the master artist's creative process.
By GUY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Andrew Wyeth, perhaps the quintessential American painter, is revered in Japan.
His delicate art, with its careful arrangement of space and spiritual essence, seems to speak directly to the Japanese people, according to Otoyo Nakamura, a Wyeth researcher at the Marunuma Art Park in Saitama, Japan.
The Marunama, an artist's village and education center, has a collection of 238 Wyeth paintings. About half of them have been brought to America as part of a traveling exhibition that will open Thursday at the Butler Institute of American Art.
Nakamura was at the Wick Avenue museum last week to oversee the unpacking and hanging of the exhibit.
"Japanese people really admire Wyeth's painting," Nakamura told the Vindicator. "I've seen them shed a tear while looking at his work."
Wyeth's landscapes have a spiritual quality that connects with the Japanese. "We exchange our mentality with him," said Nakamura, noting that Wyeth's style "reflects out ancient culture of simplicity. It is minimal and quiet, but sensitive and sophisticated."
The Marunama Art Park collects Wyeth's work so that its students can study his technique, said Nakamura.
Rare opportunity
The exhibition at the Butler will appeal to all. "Once people see his paintings, they will love him," said Nakamura.
But because it includes sketches, small studies and preparatory drawings, it also opens a window into Wyeth's creative process.
Dr. Louis Zona, director of the Butler, said the Wyeth exhibit will be "an opportunity to see a master artist up close and personal. It reveals the thought process behind an American genius. Anywhere you go, dozens of artists are trying to paint like Andrew Wyeth."
Zona explained Wyeth's place in the pantheon of great artists and his special appeal.
"Wyeth is the quintessential American artist," said Zona. "He is a storyteller, the Mark Twain of contemporary art. But he doesn't always tell the whole story. He leaves something up to the viewer ...you'll see a woman looking out a window, but you don't know what she sees."
Zona understands why the Japanese feel Wyeth is a kindred spirit. "The Japanese know how to manipulate space, however small. Wyeth is like that. He says a lot with the 'empty' space through his placement of the main objects."
Wyeth's most famous painting is "Christine's World." The 1948 work depicts a young woman crawling on a field that slopes away from a farm house, and is one of the most well-known images in 20th century American art. While "Christine's World" is not a part of the exhibit at the Butler (it hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York), Wyeth's preparatory drawings for the iconic piece are.
About the exhibition
The exhibit — entitled Andrew Wyeth Watercolors and Drawings: Selections from the Marunuma Art Park Collection, Japan — is making its third and final stop at the Butler. It opened at the Cincinnati Art Museum, which organized it. Next, it went to the Gilcrease Museum of American Art in Tulsa, Okla.
Through a fortuitous turn of events, the Butler was able to secure the exhibit. After attending the Wyeth retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art last year, Zona, an admirer of the artist's work, went to the nearby Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., which has a large Wyeth collection.
There, he met Katsushige Susaki, director of the Marunuma Art Park, and Kristin Spangenberg, curator of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Because of his interest, the Cincinnati would later ask Zona if the Butler would care to host the exhibit.
The Butler already has two Wyeth watercolors in its permanent collection. The paintings "Gen. Knox Mansion" (1941) and "Cow Birds" (1988) are displayed next to each other on the museum's first floor.
The paintings are an example of the difference between early Wyeth, with its detailed subject and abstract surroundings, and bold use of color; and the mature Wyeth, with its precise realism and muted colors.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Andrew Wyeth, perhaps the quintessential American painter, is revered in Japan.
His delicate art, with its careful...
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