Andrew Wyeth retrospective examines artist role as chronicler of Black life
The current Andrew Wyeth exhibit examines the artist’s relationship with the now-vanished “Little Africa” community in his home region of Chadds Ford. According to a press release, this comprehensive retrospective — the first since his death at 91 in 2009 — examines four major periods in Wyeth’s career, taking inspiration from the artist’s own words likening his painting to “following a long thread leading like time to change and evolution.”
The exhibition allows viewers rare access to the relatively unstudied but numerous portrayals of African Americans from the Chadds Ford community. Wyeth painted those he knew in the Black community that had been established in Chadds Ford during the Civil War. Examples of Wyeth’s extensive studies in pencil and watercolor of his African-American subjects include Tom Clark, Adam Johnson and Willard Snowden (“The Drifter,” 1967).
In 1976, Wyeth completed “Barracoon,” a composition that he would consider to be his best nude. Reportedly, Wyeth said the title of the painting refers to “the enclosures in which they kept slaves in the time of Thomas Jefferson.” The image evolved from the series he’d painted of Helga Testorf, a neighbor who modeled both nude and clothed for him for 15 years. The paintings of Helga, famously kept secret by the artist until the mid-1980s, when their revelation created a national sensation, have occupied a place in the narrative of Wyeth’s multi-decade career. The “Helga” sessions were without the knowledge of either of their spouses, so for the final work of “Barracoon” Wyeth repainted Testorf as an African-American woman. He presented the work to his wife, Betsy, as a birthday gift in 1976, telling her the model was a local woman.
Years later, Mrs. Wyeth told the New York Times the gift was “a remarkable painting” that she saw through the attempted ruse. “There’s Helga,” she said, “but she’s a Negress. He told me, ‘It just didn’t work with Helga,’ but he was very tight-lipped. I don’t know, and I don’t pry. Not if the work is ‘Barracoon.’”
“Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect” is on view through Sept. 17 at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, 1 Hoffman’s Mill Road, Chadds Ford. The museum is open daily 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. For information call (610) 388-2700 or visit the website at brandywine.org.
