Jamie Wyeth’s artwork is as eccentric and intriguing as he is.
“Jamie has a has a streak of darkness that runs through his work that’s often compared to horror writer Stephen King,” said Amanda Burdan, who curated the traveling exhibition currently making a stop at the Dayton Art Institute. “He’s even worked on projects with Stephen King who identifies Jamie as someone who speaks the same language. People might be surprised to learn there are artworks that tap into the darker side.”
The paintings and artifacts in “Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled” are drawn from museums and private collections across the country. The DAI is the exclusive Ohio venue and the final stop for this exhibition organized by the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Penn.
Burdan is senior curator at the museum located on the land which has nurtured the Wyeth family for generations. Housed in an historic grist mill overlooking Brandywine Creek, the museum features art by the Wyeth family as well as special exhibitions.
The most well-known member of the clan is Andrew Wyeth, the realist artist who painted the land and people of his hometown. Andrew’s father, N.C. Wyeth, was a famous illustrator, known for his Saturday Evening Post illustrations. The Chadds Ford complex open to the public includes Andrew Wyeth’s studio where he created many of his most important works and the N.C. Wyeth house and studio.
“Jamie grew up in such an artistic and creative environment and was trained from the day he was born to express himself through painting,” Burdan said. “He was taken out of school early and trained with his aunt, Carolyn Wyeth, in his grandfather’s studio.”
With his father getting so much attention, it must have been a tough thing to grow up as an artist in the Wyeth family, said Burdan. She said he talks about that in the documentary entitled “Jamie Wyeth and the Unflinching Eye.”
Credit: Gracie Heim
Credit: Gracie Heim
A curious exhibit
The DAI’s Head Curator and Curatorial Affairs Director Jerry Smith said the images in this show are not only compelling but are exceptionally well painted.
“They cover Jamie Wyeth’s career by looking at the theme of unsettling images — strange and creepy,” said Smith. The paintings in the show were done between 1963 and 2022.
Subject matter ranges from a decapitated deer and sinister bird to a buzz saw and morgue sketchbook.
When she first started working on the exhibit, Burdan had noticed the public’s interest in horror movies, suspense novels and fantasy. “The Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’ was coming out and there was this fascination in American pop culture with things that are unsettling and driven by anxiety,” she said. “That’s why I decided to angle the show this way.”
The exhibit is divided into three distinct sections: “Strangers and Specters,” “Natural and Supernatural Worlds” and “Haunted Places and Disturbing Spaces.”
A closer look
One of the sections centers around Wyeth’s treatment of the human figure.
“Sometimes it’s ghost-like or you meet someone in his paintings that causes you to think there is something you’re not seeing on the surface,” said Burdan. “There’s a sinister psychological message in the way he depicts the person. There may be a lone figure standing there staring at you. Or landscapes that feel haunted.”
One example is the painting entitled “Bean Bones.” On the surface it looks like a portrait of a man standing on a porch. “If you examine it more closely you’ll see that Jamie has positioned you somewhere inside a mysterious space that might be a barn attached to the house,” she said. “The man has discovered us on his property and is surrounding by threatening things. He is standing next to a caged raptor and his eyes are shaded but the bird is staring at you. Two guns are hanging in the foreground and there are hunting trophies. He puts us in the position of trespassing on this man’s property.”
One of Burdan’s favorite paintings is “Roots, Revisited,” a large scale painting of the roots of a tree. “I like it because here in our region along the Brandywine, tree roots get exposed,” she said. " Most artists would draw the beautiful limbs and leaves of a tree but Jamie chooses to show trees that have been exposed in a way we don’t normally see them. He literally goes below the ground, underground, to show trees that have been harmed, uprooted. You’re looking at the hidden parts of the tree and it’s a like a maze of twisted living tentacles."
You’ll recognize some familiar folks as you stroll through the galleries including Wyeth’s friend Andy Warhol and members of the Kennedy family. Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev is transformed into an animal with horns.
In addition to the paintings, there are artifacts that spark Wyeth’s imagination, said Smith. Those include a taxidermied dog and an automaton of a nineteenth century clown with a performing pig.
Other dramatic highlights include Wyeth’s three-dimensional works such as the “Screen Door Sequences,” assemblages that incorporate actual screen doors. In one of them, there’s a portrait of N.C. Wyeth, the grandfather Jamie never met but who remains an important influence in his life.
The miniature room entitled “Butcher Shop” is not your average grocery store meat department. “It’s more like walking through a horror movie,” Burdan said. “There’s bad stuff happening in the back room. It’s dilapidated with weapons, knives, meat hooks and hanging animal parts. You know from watching movies that someone here is about the get murdered.”’
Burdan said Jamie Wyeth’s early work made use of traditional watercolors and oils but as he matured he started using and cardboard and different textures. “Color wise he also matured; his earliest work reflects the early tones of his father’s work but his more recent work suddenly has blazes of unreal colors and brushwork that are much more expressive.”
Is this for kids?
Burdan said she wouldn’t hesitate to take children to this exhibit. “They are so steeped in pop culture that it’s second nature to them and they have responded well to the exhibit,” she said. " There are humorous things in it too."
Smith said Wyeth gives us information in his paintings, but allows gallery-goers to fill in the rest of the story. That’s something interesting families can do as they walk through the galleries.
Drawing tables are available for guests to create their own artwork in the in-gallery education interactive. Tapping into one of Wyeth’s themes of unsettled places and spaces, visitors are asked to resettle unsettled places and spaces connected to Dayton’s history including the 1913 flood, the formerly abandoned Arcade and the abandoned Argonne Forest Amusement Park located in the Possum Creek Metro Park.
The DAI gift shop is selling the 200 page catalog for the show ($55) and is also stocking postcards, magnets, notecards and prints related to the exhibit.
HOW TO GO
What: “Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled.”
Where: Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park Drive, Dayton
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. Through June 8.
Admission: $15 for adults; $10 for seniors, active military. groups of 10 or more, college students and youth. Children ages 6 and under and museum members are free.
For more information: 937-223-4ART (4278) or info@daytonart.org
RELATED PROGRAMMING:
• Community Tours From 6 to 7 p.m. on select Thursdays: April 17 and May 22 and 1 to 2 p.m. on select Saturdays: May 3 and June 7. Included in price of general admission.
• Artist-led workshops Join DAI Yeck College Fellow Sarah Powell on a guided walk through the exhibition followed by an artmaking experience in our studio spaces. Slated for 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. Cost: $40 for members; $55 for non-members. Ages 18 and up.
• Doorways of Dayton: Jamie Wyeth’s use of doors inspires guests to examine the doorways of their own lives This is an assemblage-based workshop and previous art-making experience is recommended but not required. From 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. Cost is $40 for museum members; $55 for non-members. Ages 18 and up.
Register for these events at dai.ticketapp
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