Andrew Wyeth was always fascinated by the subject of mortality.
Before his own death in 2009, he painted several visions of skeletons, funerals, and gravesites.
He worked on preliminary sketches for a composition of himself lying in a coffin, surrounded by the people who were important to him, such as his wife Betsy, and his models Helga and Anna Kuerner.
This "Funeral Group" of sketches offers a tantalizing hint at a composition that he never completed. "I might die before it's done," he said. "Maybe you'll only have a pile of loose ideas."
The Funeral Group sketches, along with a few selected finished works on the subject of death and life, are included in an exhibition currently on view at Colby College Museum of Art in Maine. The exhibition will be up through October 16, 2022.
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Wikipedia on Andrew Wyeth
Museum catalog: Andrew Wyeth--Life and Death.
In the end, maybe we're all just "a pile of loose ideas." Maybe that's all we're meant to be.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's enough.
There's this incredible quote by Andrew in "An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art":
ReplyDeleteIn many of [my father's] paintings, the faces have a relaxed, almost deathlike quality that is extraordinary. I once asked about this.
Pa said, "When my mother died, I took the train...I sat there with her, with that amazing face that looked like the mother of Europe. As the sun went down, studying that face lying there on that white pillow and that waxy skin, it made such an impression on me. Andy, if you ever have a chance to be with someone you have loved, don't hesitate to do it, because that's the most profound quality, a head in death."
Twenty years later my father was killed...I sat there in that meeting house where he and Newell, my brother Nat's son, lay. I will never forget that scene and the dry leaves blowing in late October..their faces had become masks of eternity.
I read this in a used bookstore one day and it changed the way I view painful experiences as an artist. Thank you for letting us know about the show!