Dec 4, 2024 — Feb 16, 2025
Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled traces a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946). This major exhibition—organized by the Brandywine Museum of Art (Chadds Ford, PA) and five years in the making—features more than 50 works drawn from museum and private collections across the country that focus on the artist’s arresting, visceral imagery, revealing fascinating insight into Wyeth and the art of visual storytelling.
A celebrated figure in contemporary art and fiercely independent in the face of prevailing art world trends, Jamie Wyeth stands apart in a shadowy and strange world of his own creation. While frequently countered and even hidden by the artist’s fuller body of work—particularly his well-known coastal views, farmscapes, and portraits—an unsettled mood.
Unsettled begins with a presentation of eccentric portraits that illustrate Wyeth’s most powerful means of evoking disquieting moods. The exhibition continues by immersing viewers into natural and supernatural worlds, from works inspired by the artist’s time spent in Maine—which frequently acknowledge the power of the sea and its fearsome ability to render humans helpless—to forest-based works from Pennsylvania that delve into the supernatural side of nature. The animal kingdom also offers opportunities for Wyeth to stretch his dark imagination, with portraits of frenzied birds, mesmerizing sheep, and decapitated deer in vivid paintings. The exhibition concludes with an exploration of haunted spaces that breach thresholds to explore uncertain interiors.
Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog co-published by Rizzoli Electa and Brandywine. Following its presentation at the Greenville County Museum of Art (Greenville, SC), the exhibition will travel to Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, OH), and the Frye Art Museum (Seattle, WA). This exhibition is made possible with support from Mac and Frances Weymouth, Linda L. Bean, Diana Bean, Chase, D.D. Matz, Helen C. Alexander, Cina AlexanderForgason, Morris and Boo Stroud, and an anonymous donor.