Andrew Wyeth: "The Young Fisherman and his Dory"
I am an inveterate student – show me a lecture on art or literature, and I am there. Tonight I attended a wonderful presentation by Michael Komanecky, Chief Curator of the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. The University of Maine at the Belfast campus (Hutchinson Center) is hosting a series of cultural events in July. Usually, I take notes but tonight I winged it – the following is what I remembered. It’s a little sketchy (no pun intended).
The whole thing started with N. C. Wyeth of Massachusetts, who later moved to Pennsylvania and then, when the bucks started rolling in, bought a summer place in Maine. N. C. was primarily an illustrator for magazines and books but preferred to be known as a painter.
Andrew Wyeth was the son of N. C. Wyeth. N. C. taught his son to draw and Andrew learned well – over his lifetime he produced a prolific portfolio of drawings, watercolors and paintings.
The son of Andrew is Jamie Wyeth, also an artist; he was born in 1946, hung out a lot with Andy Warhol, and is still painting.
The Farnsworth Museum celebrates the artists and art of Maine – it is not a Wyeth museum even though the museum owns an extensive collection of these three artists. Lucy Farnsworth died in 1935 at the ripe age of 97; having not married and outlived all her siblings, she directed that her large estate be used to establish an art museum in Rockland. Voila!
Okay, I should have taken notes.
Diana
