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...

Bill Sienkiewicz "REVOLUTION"

 The arrival of Bill Sienkiewicz’s “Revolution” has been cause for much personal celebration and many declarations. I am a committed and constant follower and admirer of his art. I remember him from his early “Neal Adams Clone Days” and still seeing something of a potential and particular originality in what he was doing. Many comic book artists of the period were doing Adams; he was the standard of the times, so Sienkiewicz was hardly alone in following the Adams example.  At the outset Bill Sienkiewicz had the distinction of being the best of the Adams’ influenced. Even in that he stood out. He captured the broad strokes and the nuances along with the imagination and innovation that made Neal Adams famous. Bill Sienkiewicz would ultimately come into his on with a vengeance when; as he describes in “Revolution” stops attempting to emulate someone else and becomes himself. He always wanted to experiment, explore and in his own way influence the world. He has done that in many ways and in the process influenced many others as he entertains and inspires while daring to express himself in what many considered a limited medium.

                                                                                     

I more or less initially looked at this treasure of a book in two extended sessions. The opening ten pages spoke more than many enclypedic collections of other art and artists. Then I followed with the reading of the heart felt, precisely intriguing, witty and decisively cunning introduction by Neil Gaiman. The two; Gaiman and Sienkiewicz have collaborated successfully together in the past. They are equally noted for their experimental risks, daring natures and contributions as talents. That in turn was enough for me to absorb on one late evening after my copy arrived.

Returning to and then reading the informative and insightful Ben Davis essay and the compelling interview by Churl R. Kim I felt even more enamored of what could be described as the modest and uniquely American Mystique of Sienkiewicz’s persona.  Both essay and interview were further illuminated with yet more beautifully executed fine art influenced illustrations. I was in something of an intellectual and artistic bliss.

Finally I decided to take in the nearly one hundred fifty color and black & white plates of the expressive works; water-colors, acrylic, collage, mixed-medium and pen & ink works of pure genius. Here; I took a cue from Neil Gaiman. He detailed in the introduction that when working with Sienkiewicz he had taken the drawings sent to him for a Sandman story and played with them. Gaiman deviated from the sequence of his original narrative and essentially reversed and mixed the story sequence images and events. This established the need for an almost complete re-write for the material Gaiman had previously plotted. This option took him into uncharted and magnificent new places in his own uniquely personal imaginative spaces.   

I decided on following Gaiman’s lead in viewing  the remainder of the book starting from the last plate and reviewing them in reverse.  The material consisted of Jimi Hendrix, The New Mutants, Stray Toasters, Dare Devil and Elektra; along with pages from his sketch book and fine art renderings all generously offered. This came together into something thrilling, challenging, provocative and entertaining. I found myself touched and as well moved. Ultimately there was a sense of certainty and complexity; in the best way, a personal restoration of significant satisfaction. 

Bill Sienkiewicz Quotes

“I made a decision to love and respect comics as a medium. I believed it was a medium that could do anything.”

“I pursue the emotional truth of something as opposed to simply the visual truth.”

“We are all an evolving combination of all the things we experience. We are an end result of our influences, subconscious or otherwise.”

“If my work influences or touches other people scares them, makes them uncomfortable or brings them joy, it’s a method of communication.”

“At one point everything is brand new, but with time the new wave becomes the old guard.”

“Art is an ongoing and never ending process…you’re not done. You’re never done.”

The Treasures of Rembrandt van Rijn

His name has lived in the hearts and minds of lovers of fine art and especially portraiture since the 1600’s beginning in his native Holland. His fame was quick to spread beyond Hollands borders. He became a symbol for all things artistic, exuberant and beautiful.  As his esteem grew his importance and legend grew in equal stature. He would truly become and be called “Prince of Painters.” This unofficial but lovingly granted title was rightly and justly earned. Rembrandt van Rijn   will remain likely as such as long as the art of painting and excellence is considered important in this world.

Rembrandt excelled at many different schools of painting and forms of “picture making” he was a master draftsman and printer. He thrilled the many by creating biblical scenes, landscapes, mythologies and allegorical pieces.  Among his most revered works are The Night Watch,    The 100 Guilders Print and The Raising of Lazarus.   

The massive gifts of Rembrandt are evident and displayed in his understanding of humanity, his story-telling and his love of detail. With all that has been previously stated; it is his dramatic manipulation and control of light that is his hallmark. The technique known as chiaroscuro (the placing of extreme lightness in conjunction with extreme darkness) was never better executed than by the hand of Rembrandt. For that alone he could have been immortalized.

A few years ago at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC I was able to visit one of Rembrandt’s greatest pieces with someone special; my very young grandson. This happened to be a slow day at the museum and we pretty much had the gallery to ourselves. Looking at this particular one of the “Master’s” self-portraits was more akin to looking at a living breathing man. You could almost imagine this gentile, knowing soul blinking or taking a breath. Rembrandt had gone beyond photo-realism, surrealism or any noted form of realism. He had endowed life or as close as the alchemy of painting would allow. 

After a time I asked my grandson if he would like to meet this man? He had remained very calm for a child his then age as I held him raised in my arms. He answered; yes. 

I told him we have met him to a certain manner of speaking through Rembrandt’s exacting and specific methods. Time had been made to stand still. This work of art; the artist Rembrandt  had stood before at this exact proximity and distance as he worked the canvas, stood before the piece looking, studying, pausing, painting then seeing again,  creating. It was almost as if we were breathing the same air that Rembrandt had breathed so many centuries ago. We left the Rembrandt to move on to other works in this world class collection of art. We left the Rembrandt to another visitor, a respectful man who had waited patiently for his own time, personal moments with the master.

The selected works of Rembrandt featured here; hopefully, will touch your psyche in a special, singular way…in such a way as only can be reached through the embracing of his gifts, the gifts of Rembrandt’s visionary talents. 

 "Compare me with Rembrandt! What sacrilege! With Rembrandt, the colossus of Art! We should prostrate ourselves before Rembrandt and never compare anyone with him!"

                                                                                                                                                Agustuse Rodin

 "I have had three masters: Nature, Velázquez, and Rembrandt.

                                                                                                                 Francisco Goya

"Whenever I see a Frans Hals, I feel like painting; whenever I see a Rembrandt, I feel like giving up"

                                                                                                                      Max Liebermann