American Realist: Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth could well be considered the third leg of a secular trinity of sorts. He is one of America’s foremost practitioners of realistic painting. He is responsible for a formidable body of work that rivals the living and the ages. He has well mastered his chosen; perhaps genetic and culturally…even God-given medium; painting. Jamie Wyeth is an artist of the highest order. He is also the grandson of N.C. Wyeth and son of Andrew together forming, and continuing their great family’s tradition, devotion, commitment to and love of art.

Jamie labors painstakingly; hours, days and nights on works that result in things of interest, passion and a richness of beauty of craft. In this world; increasingly unappreciative of the works of the human hand, mind and spirit he reminds us of a vanishing, richer age. He continues to produce works that are challenging while true to life and it’s very essence. 

Wyeth’s life-long fascination with the visual arts and imagery was first informed by visits to his father’s studio, books, objects and an unquenchable curiosity of the natural world. While his unceasing interest and exploring of everything possible, he grew. As a child he asked to be able to leave school (like his father who never actually attend formal school) early on and be educated by his aunt Carolyn Wyeth. 

Her style was a departure from the expected Wyeth style of painstaking realism and naturalism. His aunt’s style fits more readily within the realm of a fantastic outsider/ folk genre. She also worked with oils, unlike Jamie’s father who worked primarily with egg tempera and led to Jamie’s becoming a practitioner of Oils. Wyeth would later study in New York where he came in contact with the likes of Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He went on to share many experiences within the New York Scene and this led to multiple studies and paintings of a rare depth and beauty.  

 Jamie Wyeth would eventually evolve with his natural abilities into something akin to his grandfather; an illustrator. He has to date done three children’s picture books: “Cabbages and Kings,” “Sammy and the Sky,” and his mother; Betsy’s story “The Stray.” In the age of Post Modernism, Abstraction, Minimalism and Dada the Wyeth’s have never been lauded by the overall contemporary “Art Scene.” Again; negativity from the art world elites who consider illustration unworthy of great talent or merit. Wyeth has met disdain with the following quote:

"We're charged, my father and I, with being a pack of illustrators. I've always taken it as a supreme compliment. What's wrong with illustration? There's this thing now that illustrations are sort of secondary to art and I think it's a bunch of crap."                                 

                                                                                                                           Jamie Wyeth     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                           

 

The Wyeth’s have survived and thrived in spite of some, somewhat expected snobbery and derision. It is the price of popularity. Jamie was chosen to be a member of the “Eye Witness to Space” group created by the National Gallery in Washington; DC and NASA. The goal was to represent the activities of the space program for the present and posterity. Some of the other participants were Norman Rockwell, Robert Rauschenberg and Morris Graves. 

Wyeth has been a much sought out artist of chose for other venues as well.  “Harper’s” hired Jamie as court artist for the Water Gate Hearings and later trials. The Kennedy Family commissioned an unofficial posthumous portrait of JFK. It was brilliantly executed from the inspiration of photos and video depicting a young Kennedy perhaps at the time of the Bay of Pigs. The expression was something of introspection and possible indecision. The family for the most part was not pleased but over time public acceptance won out. It is considered one of the best depictions of the former president known.

Recently Jamie has been working on a series of his own provocation, his borderline surreal, often dreamlike seascapes. These images are coming to him within his actual night’s dreaming. The waters are choppy, rough and stormy. The wet rocky edges of the seas are often depicted with figures standing calmly watching the spectacle of it all. The figures just happen to be those of many whom he has known in life that left their individual marks on him. His father; Andrew and his grandfather, N.C. are depicted closest to land’s end and perhaps surprisingly the figure of Andy Warhol at a further distance;watching, almost hidden in the background trees. They are the residents of these strange hypnotic worlds. These are the most visionary and symbolic of any of Jamie’s works, especially when considering those of his earlier years.  These works are a definite departure from the quiet and serenity of the majority of his pieces.

At the end of the day and much has been said Jamie Wyeth’s works are most solidly “American” in form and character. At once the speaking of his vivid, painterly voice. His paintings are robust, no-nonsense, strong pieces that seem to spring up from the very earth and sky becoming the incredible things they are.  Wyeth knows himself, his history and his work as well and much better than most. He is yet a rare talent and blessed with an inherited legacy few can match. We are all the better for the inspiration of his life and works. We continue and will always admire his gifts and giving. 

A Brief Portfolio of Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth is an artist of such strong presence, depth, richness and volume he merits a special notice. While putting together a recognition blog I found more pieces worthy of display than fit a single showcase. I have selected six paintings consisting of  four oils and two watercolors with a single lithograph to represent his talents and passions. With no doubt there are infinitely more worth viewing; the work is infectious. Wyeth is among the known artists whose works speak most eloquently of their own accord. I will let the creations of Wyeth's hand; heart and mind tell their own stories...

A Murder of Crows

 

I dreamed I was haunted and hunted by a murder of crows; indicted by a parliament of owls and entertained by a gaggle of geese. These are all poetic terms for groups of birds; their origins not completely known. The case of the crows probably is in alignment with the fact that battle fields have been known to be covered with the feasting carrion birds. I’m certain more than one murder victim’s corpse has been found in the same manner. The crows black feathers an ominous symbol of death and their song a cry of pain, far less than alluring. A murder of crows in short has a “ring” that sounds remarkable fitting and ideally distinct.  

 

 

The crow is equally arresting in nature and in fiction. Books, film and song feature the resourcefully clever creatures. Aesop was fond of crows and found them useful in many of his illustrious fables, “The Crow and the Pitcher, The Fox and the Crow and The Crow and the Swan” among them. Disney used crows in his feature “Dumbo.” A flock (Disney would never have used the word murder) of crows befriend the distressed elephant; help him to believe in himself and his abilities. Disney’s Crows add humor, song, heart and compassion to the film. The characters were also considered racially offensive and rife with negative stereo-types. They remain debatable. Ralph Bakshi would use crows in a similar but updated manner as did Disney in his adaptation of R. Crumb’s “Fritz the Cat.” Bakshi’s films were much more satirical and “hipper,” they were critical of every aspect of society and culture. Bakshi’s brilliance was equal to Disney’s but drastically different and his target audience the radical chic and the underground covet his land mark films.

 

Actor Johnny Depp has chosen to wear a hopefully taxidermist crow as a headdress in the currently in theatres version of “The Lone Ranger.” His impressive “Tonto Look” was inspired by a painting by contemporary artist Kirby Sattler. The painting “I Am Crow” is a feat unto itself and Sattler’s fame should increase exponentially with the film’s success. Depp in full makeup is featured on the July 4-8 cover issue of “Rolling Stone” magazine. It will take its place among the many iconic covers from the magazine’s remarkable history of striking covers.

Painter Jamie Wyeth works almost exclusively from nature. He is one of America’s most acclaimed and revered artists.  Crows, along with their cousin’s ravens have found their way onto a number of his canvases. These works are detailed to a flaw and lovely to behold. Wyeth’s crow paintings are successful renderings that illuminate the animal like no others.

                                                    "I Am Crow" by Kirby Sattler

 

 

James O’ Barr’s “The Crow” is the telling of a murder victim’s rise from the grave and vigilante style retribution of his own and his bride’s killers. It places Barr among the most revered of the graphic novel form. The original film version released in 1994 starring the late Brandon Lee became legend. Lee’s immersion into the character and his untimely death during the actual filming have made “The Crow” a cult classic that remains engaging and intriguing. The stylistic comic book, gothic-noir look of the movie is unsurpassed to this day. 

In as much as the crow informs and inspires the minds of the creative they are in general among the least popular of birds. Think about the scarecrow…what other bird has a thing named; invented and dedicated just to ward it off. The scarecrow does honestly have a justification in that crows destroy crops and are a general nuisance. There are few that don’t love a singing and dancing scarecrow as portrayed by Ray   Bolger in “The Wizard of Oz” and later by Michael Jackson in the “Wiz.” Crows themselves are by most accounts not the most beautiful of creatures especially considering the vast array of colorful families of known birds. Crows while reviled are actually the cleanest of birds, smart, loving and attentive as parents. 

 

As I write this blog a giant crow has just landed in a tree above me adjacent to my front porch, we are almost face to face. It is cawing wildly and dangerously close. I have to admit he is a little “too close for comfort.”  I will have to chase him away. It seems that the species is best viewed from a distance or through the interpretation of fiction.  The true scientist would perhaps view this as a rare opportunity and a great vantage point of observation. I do not. Why is it also in this moment of discomfort; this feeling something of ill at ease, with it there is too a strange validation; a degree of union to nature and in its oddity something akin to Poe?    

The Crow and the Pitcher 

 A crow, ready to die with thirst, flew with joy to a pitcher, which he saw at a distance. But when he came up to it, he found the water so low that with all his stooping and straining he was unable to reach it. So he tried to break the pitcher, then to overturn it, but his strength was not sufficient to do either. At last, seeing some small pebbles at hand, he dropped a great many of them, one by one, into the pitcher, and so raised the water to the brim and quenched his thirst.

Aesop

Moral: Little by little does the trick