WYETH - James Welling

WYETH
WYETH
JAMES WELLING
WAKO WORKS OF ART
As an adolescent, I was profoundly affected by the work of Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009). Recently,
I began to study Wyeth again, and decided to photograph some of the subjects he painted in
Maine and Pennsylvania.
CUSHING, MAINE
Olson House, 2010 In September 2010, I went to the Olson house in Cushing, Maine, where Wyeth
painted from 1939 to 1969. The house stands at the end of Hathorn Point Road. It comes upon
you suddenly, a gigantic, brooding silhouette.
Two Trees and Field, 2010 The land slopes away from the Olson house toward the St. George
River. Beyond the right edge of Field is a small cemetery. Alvaro and Christina Olson are buried
there, as is Andrew Wyeth.
End of Olsons, 2010 Looking out toward the chimney in Wyeth’s End of Olsons (1969), I could see
the forty-two years of forest growth that now obscures the small cove depicted in his painting.
Two Rooms, 2010 In the 1940s, Wyeth used the upper floor of the Olson house as a studio. From
a window in the room to the left, Wyeth saw Christina returning from her flower garden. This
memory triggered Christina’s World (1948). The window in the room to the right inspired Wind
from the Sea (1947).
Revenant, 2010 In 1949 Wyeth saw his reflection in a dusty mirror in the Olson House, and this
became the basis for The Revenant (1949). I printed my photograph backwards to approximate
the mirror image.
Basket and Workbench, 2010 In a shed attached to the Olson house, a streak of blue spray paint
marks Alvaro’s workbench. In painting after painting, Wyeth’s palette is subdued, except for a
single blue element – a coat, a door, a bit of paint – that punctuates the composition.
Broad Cove, 2010 This part of Broad Cove is just off River Road in Cushing. It’s low tide: trees,
rocks, kelp, mussels, leaves, and mud.
C H A DD S F O R D , P E N N S Y LVA N I A
Tenant Farmer, 2010 Wyeth lived in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, for 91 years. Driving into
Chadds Ford from the south, I passed this eighteenth-century brick house where Wyeth began
making studies for Tenant Farmer (1961) shortly before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration.
Groundhog Day, 2010 In December 2010, I visited the Kuerner farm, where Wyeth painted
hundreds of works. The Kuerner ’s kitchen table is set to approximate Groundhog Day (1959), his
painting of a table and a kitchen window. Wyeth altered the perspective to such an extent that
the actual view out the window could never conform to the view he painted.
Hooks, 2010 On the third floor of the Kuerner farmhouse, steel hooks jut out of the ceiling. They
were used to dry laundry and to age sausages. The ominous hook shapes resemble letterforms, or
runners on an old-fashioned sled.
Kuerner’s Hill, 2010 When I arrived at the Kuerner farm, Karl Kuerner III greeted me with
the words, “Well, there’s the hill.” He gestured to the familiar profile of Kuerner ’s Hill,
immortalized in Wyeth’s Winter (1946). The hill represents grief for Wyeth. His father and
nephew were accidently killed by a train a quarter-mile away.
Young Bull, 2010 I first saw the painting Young Bull (1960) reproduced in 1965, in the catalogue
Andrew Wyeth: Dry Brush and Pencil Drawings. Unlike the artificial perspective of Groundhog Day,
Wyeth’s Young Bull carefully records the sweep of Kuerner ’s Hill in relation to the stone wall.
Boulder in Snow, 2010 As I prepared to leave the Kuerner farm in December, the first snowfall of
the year began. I delayed my departure to photograph this boulder.
Winter Grass, 2011 Wyeth learned to paint in the studio of his father, Newell Convers Wyeth.
Near the woods behind it, I found this clump of grass that reminded me of Wyeth’s dry brush
drawing Grasses (1941).
Orchard, 2010 Wyeth often painted in the apple orchard adjacent to N. C. Wyeth’s studio. Apple
trees have a lifespan of about eighty years, and some of these trees have started to collapse and die.
Night Mare, 2011 When I visited the Brandywine River Museum in 2010, I saw Wyeth’s
watercolor Night Mare (1973), which depicts a large sycamore tree and the skeleton of a horse.
The following year, I was astonished to see the same sycamore in the swamp behind a Chadds
Ford restaurant.
Glass House, 2010 Inside the cupola of a large Italianate house in Chadds Ford, Wyeth made the
painting entitled Glass House (1991). The house, known as “Painter ’s Folly,” was once the home
of the illustrator Howard Pyle. Now, Wyeth’s friends George and Helen Sipala own it. Wyeth
painted four late temperas there: Painter’s Folly (1989), Widow’s Walk (1990), Marriage (1993), and
Renfield (1999).
Sycamore, 2010 Wyeth’s Pennsylvania Landscape (1941) depicts an aged sycamore tree. When
I visited the Sipalas, they told me that the tree in the painting stood just across the driveway.
George helped me carry my equipment to the base of the tree, where I photographed its
textured bark.
Mother Archie’s Church, 2011 Today, Mother Archie’s Church is a ruin. It’s hard to believe that
the church was still intact when Wyeth painted it in the early 1950s.
Studio and Studio Door, 2011 Wyeth’s studio was originally a schoolhouse. He entered the
building through this door on the side of the building, which was two steps from the room in
which he painted.
Easel, 2011 Wyeth’s easel stands where I imagine it stood when he was painting. The walls of
his studio, visible behind the easel, are works in themselves, abstract expanses of plaster, paint,
and pencil notations.
Dry Pigments, 2011 Wyeth kept his dry pigments by the front window in the studio. His
subdued egg tempera paintings were created using earth colors but also intense greens, blues,
reds, and oranges.
Strathmore Gemini, 2011 A table in the studio was covered with rolls of Fabriano paper and
a worn block of Strathmore watercolor paper. Inside the block, I found a faint pencil drawing
for an unfinished watercolor, a web of nebulous lines delineating a tree, or perhaps a
witch’s broomstick.
James Welling was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1951. He lives and
works in Los Angeles.
Wyeth James Welling
Published on the occasion of the exhibition at Wako Works of Art, Tokyo
January 20 – March 10, 2012
Text by James Welling
Designed by Magyn Kydd and Taryn Haydostian
Printed by SunM Color Co., Ltd.
Publication date: January 14, 2012
ISBN 987-4-902070-38-5
Published by Wako Works of Art Co., Ltd.
Piramide Bldg. 3F, 6-6-9 Roppongi
Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan
www.wako-art.jp
© 2012 James Welling & Wako Works of Art
Printed in Japan
Thanks to:
(Maine) Michael Komanecky, Jane Bianco, David Troup, Angela Waldron,
Lorraine DeLaney, Nancy Harris
(Pennsylvania) Mary Landa, James Duff, Hillary Holland, Mary Cronin, Lora Englehart,
Christine Podmaniczky, Karl Kuerner, Jr., Karl Kuerner III, Helen and George Sipala, Victoria Wyeth
Adam Weinberg, Susan Talbott, Erin Monroe, Patricia Hickson, Kathy Ryan, Denise Bratton,
Farley Ziegler, Taryn Haydostian, John Sisley, Valerie Green, Peter Holzhauer, Jane Weinstock
Frontispiece:
Studio Mirror, 2011 Wyeth’s sheepskin jacket hangs on a large mirror in the studio.
Back Cover:
Hooks, 2010