Jamie Wyeth

About

Son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth, Jamie grew up in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He received private home tutoring while studying painting with his aunt Carolyn Wyeth, who taught him the rudiments of classical draftsmanship.

During these formative years, Wyeth would hone his skills by making charcoal still life drawings in N.C. Wyeth’s old studio. He later spent three years working as an apprentice to his father, after which time he moved to New York, refining his skills in depicting human anatomy by studying and drawings corpses in a hospital morgue. After experimenting with various media, Wyeth found that in contrast to his father, who favors tempera, he was drawn to the bright hues and the moist, lush effects of oil paint, which he began to use regularly in 1963.

Wyeth developed a traditional realist style, initially working in the meticulous manner of his father but imbuing his work with his own personal touch. During the 1960s and 70s, he applied this approach to portraits (among them his well-received posthumous image of John F. Kennedy, done in 1967), in which he captured the humanity of his sitters and revealed himself as a master of the human form. His portrait oeuvre includes images of artists like Andy Warhol to politicians like President-elect Jimmy Carter, all portrayed with an eye for detail and a desire to evoke the individual spirit of his subject.

“The seamless blending of dream-like imagery and closely observed detail is characteristic of many of the paintings of Howard Pyle and N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, but nowhere is it more apparent than in the work of Jamie Wyeth.  Born in 1946 he is mid-career and has developed a fully independent vision, one that freely acknowledges it owes much to his father, grandfather and Pyle.”- Wondrous Strange: The Wyeth Tradition

As part of three generations his paintings have frequently traveled in international museum tours and across the U.S. His close friendship with Andy Warhol in the 1970’s led to a museum exhibition of paintings by Warhol, Basquiat and Jamie in 2006. In 2014​ a solo American museum retrospective, which toured across country, highlighted Jamie’s individuality and inclusion in the contemporary art world.

Exhibitions at Somerville Manning Gallery

2022         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2021         PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE

2020         American Masters: Art of the 20th – 21st Centuries

2019         Under the Influence | Contemporary Artists and the Masters Who Inspire Them

2018         Wyeth to Warhol: Modern Masters From Past and Present

2017         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2016         American and European Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2015         Jamie Wyeth – Paintings from Six Decades

2015         American and European Masters: Art of the 19th – 20th Centuries

2014         Man’s Best Friend – The Art of the Dog

2014         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2013         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2012         American Masters: Art of the 19th – 21st Centuries

2011         American and European Masters: Art of the 19th – 20th Centuries

2010         American Masters: Art of the 19th, 20th, & 21st Centuries

2009         American Masters

2008         American Green – Art and Stewardship

Selected Exhibitions

2017 – 22    The Wyeths: Three Generations | Works from the Bank of America Collection

Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
Portland Art Museum, Portland, ME
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC 2017

2015           Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the Studio, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

2014 – 15    Jamie Wyeth: A Retrospective

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
San Antonio Museum of of Art, San Antonio, TX
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2012 – 13    Jamie Wyeth, Rockwell Kent and Monhegan

Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Farnsworth Art Musuem, Rockland, ME

2011         The Wyeths: Three Generations of Art, The Mona Bismarck Museum, Paris, France

2011         Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2011         The Wyeths: America’s Artists, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

2010         The Wyeth Legacy: Cowan Collection Paintings, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK

2010         Wyeth’s Wyeths, Farnsworth Art Musuem, Rockland, ME

2009 – 10    Jamie Wyeth: The Seven Deadly Sins

Salt Lake City Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2009         Wyeth: Three Generations of Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

2007          Jamie Wyeth: Paintings, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME

2007         Jamie Wyeth: Birds, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, Wausau, WI

2007         Dog Days of Summer: Works by Jamie Wyeth, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2006 – 07    Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat

Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2006         Capturing Nureyev: James Wyeth Paints the Dancer, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

2006         James Wyeth: Portrait of an Artist, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2006         Jamie Wyeth’s Birds, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2006         James Wyeth: Selected Works, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2006         The Wyeths, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL

2005         Gulls, Ravens, and a Vulture: The Ornithological Paintings of James Wyeth, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2003         James Wyeth: Portraits and Landscapes, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2002 – 03    Capturing Nureyev: James Wyeth Paints the Dancer

Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC

2001         The Maine Influence: Selected Works by James Wyeth, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2000 – 01    One Nation: Patriots and Pirates

Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Russell Rotunda, Capitol Building, Washington, DC
Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

2000         Monhegan, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1999         Paintings, Props, and Costumes: Objects of Inspiration, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1999         Art Train (42-Month Train Tour to 120 Communities), NASA/American Museum in Motion

1999         Cabbages and Kings, The Butler Museum of American Art, Youngstown, OH

1999         A Century of Wyeths, Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1998         Wondrous Strange

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1998         Wyeth: Three Generations, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY

1998         The Wyeths: N.C., Andrew and Jamie, Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA

1997 – 08    N.C. Wyeth and His Grandson: A Legacy

Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL

1993         Jamie Wyeth: Islands, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1988         An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

1987 – 88    An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England
Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Sciagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Academy of the Arts of the USSR, Moscow
Academy of the Arts of the USSR, Leningrad

1984         Jamie Wyeth: An American View

Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Columbia Museum, Columbia, SC
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

1983 – 84    Howard Pyle and the Wyeths: Four Generations of American Imagination

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, CA
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN

1983         Jamie Wyeth in Alaska

Alaska State Museum, Juneau, AK
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AK
Anchorage Fine Arts Museum, Anchorage, AK

1980 – 81    Jamie Wyeth

Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1977 – 78    Jamie Wyeth: Recent Paintings

Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY

1976         Andy Warhol & Jamie Wyeth Portraits of Each Other, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY

1976         James Wyeth, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

1974 – 75    James Wyeth: Recent Paintings

Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Coe Ken Gallery, New York, NY

1971         The Brandywine Heritage, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

1969         Oils, Watercolors, Drawings by James Wyeth, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

Public Collections

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Morgan Library and Museum, New York NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Honorary Degrees

2002         University of Delaware, Wilmington, DE
2001         University of Maine, Orono, ME
1993         Westbrook College, Portland, ME
1988         University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
1987         Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA
1983         Dickinson School of Law, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
1975         Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA

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