October 29, 2016 to January 22, 2017
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| The Drowning, 1936, Oil on canvas, 42 x 48-1/8". Brandywine River Museum of Art Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth. |
Treatments of coastal New England, small-town Pennsylvania, Midwestern farms, and other rural regions of the country illustrate the dispersal of canonical modernist styles such as Cubism and Fauvism, as well as the translation of these idioms into an American vernacular modernism. Comprised of nearly 70 works mainly completed between the world wars, Rural Modern investigates the incursion and gradual acceptance of modernist tropes in the American provinces. Some of the artists included, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, were firmly entrenched in modernism before leaving the cities behind. Other artists, N.C. Wyeth for example, started out in more pastoral settings and traditional styles but came to adopt ever more experimental approaches.
Rural Modern is organized by Amanda C. Burdan, Associate Curator, and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue including insightful essays by Burdan and other noted scholars of American modernism.
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| To the Rescue, 1886, Winslow Homer, 24" x 30" The Phillips Collection |
Art reflects the rich diversity of style and expression in American art created between 1870 and 1950.
February 25, 2017
to May 21, 2017
The exhibition, assembled by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., features fifty-four superb paintings by Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Thomas Eakins, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, Horace Pippin, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, and many others who revolutionized picture-making in the United States. The exhibition traces the course of modern art in the works of these artists—from the bold, investigative realism of Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins at the end of the nineteenth century, to the reductive views and psychological insights of Edward Hopper and Morris Graves at mid-twentieth century.
The Phillips Collection, founded in 1918 by Duncan Phillips and opened in the Phillips family home in 1921, was dedicated to modernism and to America’s best artists. Phillips formed his ground-breaking collection with a strong emphasis on paintings by artists whose critical thinking and creative originality would raise American art out of obscurity. He challenged the perceived superiority of European over American art alongside works by European masters. In addition, he sought works by women, artists of color, and native and foreign-born or self-taught artists, so that the collection represented a “fusion of various sensitivities” and a “unification of differences” that would parallel the multicultural character of the nation. Phillips was the first to give living artists solo exhibitions, and his support for new artists was a critical factor in the careers of many.
This exhibition has been organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
George A. Weymouth: A Retrospective
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| 1974, Tempera on Masonite panel, 48 x 48 in., Gift of George A. Weymouth, 1989 |
January 27, 2018 to April 22, 2018
In addition to his roles as founder and board chairman of the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art, land and historic preservationist, George A. “Frolic” Weymouth (1936-2016) was a highly talented artist.
This landmark exhibition of approximately 65 of Weymouth’s best works of art in all media will reveal the breadth of his visual investigations. From the loose energetic style and monochromatic palette of Weymouth’s early oils in the 1950s, the mature artist, mentored by his close friend Andrew Wyeth, used the mediums of watercolor and egg tempera to create haunting, hushed landscapes and powerful portraits.
Joseph Rishel, a preeminent scholar and distinguished former curator of European Paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is the guest curator for the exhibition. Acquainted with Weymouth for decades, Rishel will bring enormous insight into this, the definitive examination of the artist’s long career. Co-published by the Brandywine River Museum of Art and Rizzoli/Skira, the major catalogue accompanying the exhibition will feature an essay by Rishel and other noted scholars that will provide an overview of Weymouth’s five-decade career.
Exhibition Information
610.388.2700
www.brandywine.org/