Images of windswept landscapes, evocative portraits and the rocky coast of Maine likely come into your mind when you think of the paintings of Andrew Wyeth.
But Wyeth had an experimental side that broke away from his long-established reputation as a realist painter to create abstract works, most of which have never been seen by the public or exhibited in a museum — until now.
The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland on April 6 will open “Abstract Flash: Unseen Andrew Wyeth,” showcasing Wyeth’s little-known abstract works on paper, created over the course of six decades.
Most of the works on display have never been shown in a museum or gallery before and are drawn from the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Collection, the archive that Wyeth’s wife and creative partner Betsy spent decades cataloging and conserving. Betsy Wyeth died in 2020 and left her estate and around 7,000 works of art to a partnership between the Farnsworth, the Brandywine Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
Works like “Christina’s World,” the Helga portraits and his decades-long series of paintings of windows are seared into the public consciousness, but the art establishment of the mid-20th century often rejected Wyeth’s work entirely. Contemporaries of Wyeth, like artists Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, received critical acclaim, but Wyeth was often lambasted by art critics as sentimental and middle of the road.
The paintings shown in “Abstract Flash” prove that Wyeth, who preferred to keep to himself in his studios in Maine and Pennsylvania rather than hobnob with the New York or Paris art scenes, was far more experimental than he is generally given credit for.
“This is an opportunity for Wyeth devotees to gain a fresh perspective on the artist’s extensive body of work and range of artistic style,” said Christopher Brownawell, executive director of the Farnsworth. “We’re pleased to be able to present works that have never been on exhibit [and] to place Andrew Wyeth’s work in context with other painters of his time.”
“Abstract Flash” is the second of two exhibits showcasing Wyeth’s abstractions; the first was shown last year at the Brandywine museum. The Farnsworth will also showcase other Wyeth paintings in another exhibit, “Selections from the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Collection,” also opening on April 6, and an exhibit of works by Jamie Wyeth, son of Andrew and Betsy, will go on display on July 4.