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Jamie Wyeth
1946
BirthplaceWilmington, Delaware, United States of America
BiographyJames Browning Wyeth, known as Jamie Wyeth, continues a long family tradition of art-making in his detailed, representational but often mysterious paintings of buildings, people, and animals that express the tenor of life in rural Pennsylvania and coastal Maine. Son of distinguished painter Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), James was born the year after the death of his equally famous grandfather, Newell Convers ("N.C.") Wyeth (1882–1945), who remains best known for his children's book illustrations. James was raised on his family's farm in the Brandywine Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania and left school at the age of twelve to study at home with a tutor, as his father had. He owed his early artistic training less to his father than to his aunt, artist Carolyn Wyeth (1910–94); another aunt and two uncles also were painters. In 1963, Jamie Wyeth moved to New York City, where he studied cadavers at a New York City morgue to perfect his understanding of anatomy.
By the time he was eighteen years old, Wyeth's paintings had been widely exhibited and acquired for museum collections. His work joined that of his father and grandfather in a series of exhibitions at the Brandywine Museum at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (site of the Wyeth family home), which opened in 1971 largely to showcase the work of his artistic family and the artist-illustrators associated with N.C. Wyeth. Jamie Wyeth has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at various museums, and his work is widely collected and reproduced.
In his early work, Jamie Wyeth focused on portraits in oils. He also painted murals while serving in the Delaware Air National Guard between 1966 and 1971, and provided illustrations recording details of the space probes launched by the United States. In 1974, he created visual records of hearings and trials relating to the so-called Watergate scandal that eventually brought about the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Wyeth has received numerous commissions, among them designs for the United States Postal Service and the U.S. Mint, and has volunteered his services to the Special Olympics and the movement to conserve Maine's historic lighthouses. Wyeth spends much of his time painting in one such lighthouse on a private island on the Maine coast, and he also paints on his Pennsylvania farm.
Like his father before him, Jamie Wyeth has been criticized by the contemporary art establishment for the traditional nature of his technique, his commitment to representational painting characterized by scrupulous detail, and his rural and natural subject matter. His long friendship with avant-garde artist Andy Warhol (1928–87), marked by the portraits each painted of the other, suggests that dismissal of Wyeth as simply an old-fashioned "illustrator" is inappropriate, however. Wyeth uses his technical mastery to create works that are at once photographically "realistic" and moody, mysterious, and even fantastic. Since the 1990s he has received wider appreciation as a modern artist.
By the time he was eighteen years old, Wyeth's paintings had been widely exhibited and acquired for museum collections. His work joined that of his father and grandfather in a series of exhibitions at the Brandywine Museum at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (site of the Wyeth family home), which opened in 1971 largely to showcase the work of his artistic family and the artist-illustrators associated with N.C. Wyeth. Jamie Wyeth has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at various museums, and his work is widely collected and reproduced.
In his early work, Jamie Wyeth focused on portraits in oils. He also painted murals while serving in the Delaware Air National Guard between 1966 and 1971, and provided illustrations recording details of the space probes launched by the United States. In 1974, he created visual records of hearings and trials relating to the so-called Watergate scandal that eventually brought about the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Wyeth has received numerous commissions, among them designs for the United States Postal Service and the U.S. Mint, and has volunteered his services to the Special Olympics and the movement to conserve Maine's historic lighthouses. Wyeth spends much of his time painting in one such lighthouse on a private island on the Maine coast, and he also paints on his Pennsylvania farm.
Like his father before him, Jamie Wyeth has been criticized by the contemporary art establishment for the traditional nature of his technique, his commitment to representational painting characterized by scrupulous detail, and his rural and natural subject matter. His long friendship with avant-garde artist Andy Warhol (1928–87), marked by the portraits each painted of the other, suggests that dismissal of Wyeth as simply an old-fashioned "illustrator" is inappropriate, however. Wyeth uses his technical mastery to create works that are at once photographically "realistic" and moody, mysterious, and even fantastic. Since the 1990s he has received wider appreciation as a modern artist.