Andrew Wyeth

In their major summer exhibition the Nordic Watercolour Museum presents works by the American painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). Wyeth is world renowned for his brilliant watercolour skills and especially for the spectacular effects he achieves with his dry-brush technique. Wyeth’s pictures are precise and accurate depictions of the American country scene. His favourite subjects include people living in the areas around his home town Chadds Ford in Pennsylvania and the surroundings of his summer home at Cushing in Maine. It was in that neighbourhood that Wyeth found the figures and backgrounds depicted in his most famous painting, Christina’s World (1948) – an American icon of the great depression. Wyeth was a friend of Alvaro Olson and his polio-handicapped sister Christina. He had their permission to record their daily lives and to make sketches of their home and surroundings. This fascinating series comprises brilliant, detailed records of rooms, settings and people. Wyeth aims at absolute reality but nevertheless imbues the scenes with a magical glimmer, the product of sensitive lighting and intriguing shadow play. His paintings resound with silence and restfulness but at the same time with disturbing echoes of the American depression. These masterly watercolours have never before been exhibited for a Swedish audience. They are loaned from the private Marunuma Art Park collection in Japan, and are on show exclusively at the Nordic Watercolour Museum. Accompanying the exhibition will be an extensive catalogue and a film on Wyeth’s artistry.

Andrew Wyeth