Dabbling in Art

I experienced my very first major exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum yesterday. This past week, the Andrew Wyeth exhibit opened. Although this was not on purpose, I got to go view it the very first Saturday it was up. This made for a slightly crowded viewing, but it was so worth it. There were just rooms upon rooms of unbelievable pieces that he had created over many decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. I was not that familiar with Wyeth going into it, but coming out of it, I think I could definitely call myself a fan. What I perhaps enjoyed the most was an over all observation--this man is like an enigma. He tapped into almost every artistic trend that spanned his lifetime--and these were plentiful. (He is still alive...old...but alive; he was born in 1917). His long, prolific career has survived even up through the early years of this new century. In fact, there are paintings up from recent years like 2004 and 2001.

Another fantastic part of the walk-through came with the audio commentary available on the personal listening devices that were handed out as I made my way through the admission line. These were very handy as they provided fantastic facts for individual works. Occasionally, there were even audio recordings of Wyeth, himself, commenting. One of the most memorable had to do with the painting above, Winter (1946), which commemorates his father, N.C. Wyeth. He never painted his father (and painter forbear) during his father's living years, so this was one of the many times he attempted to remember his life. In any case, Wyeth proves a very interesting and psychologically-intensive artistic master. All of his comments indicated his emotional and mental acuity in relation to both the human spirit and nature--two of my favorite things.

A couple of other reasons to visit his exhibit: He reigns from the Philadelphia region and one of his most famous paintings, Soaring (1942-50), is said to have train tracks on the back of it. You ask, how and why? Well, it seems that when Wyeth finished this massive painting, he was not satisfied with it. So, he hid it away in his attic. When his boys were playing with trains up there, they set it up as a place to run the trains on. Then, years later, Wyeth released it for exhibit.

In closing, I think one of the best parts of this experience was the fact that I had never done it before. I'm very uptight about the etiquette involved in such things, but it turned out to be a really great experience despite my lack of knowledge, and I wouldn't have wanted to spend my Saturday any other way.