Andrew Wyeth and the American Watercolor Movement
- Lecture
- Ticket Required
Lunchtime Lecture
Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries.
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
About The Event
Beginning in the 1930s, American artist Andrew Wyeth built a monumental reputation for his use of watercolor, depicting the people and places that surrounded him in rural Pennsylvania and Maine. Notably, he began to experiment with the medium at a time when interest in it exploded throughout the United States, leading to watercolor’s promotion as a medium distinctively suited to depicting American experiences. This new climate for making and exhibiting watercolors not only encouraged Wyeth’s practice but also informed the fundamental questions engaged by his work about what it meant to be American and modern at that time. This talk examines the historical context for Wyeth’s exploration of watercolor and offers a closer look at the works included in Spectacular Freedom: Andrew Wyeth and the Modern American Watercolor, currently on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery.
Sponsors
All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen, and Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mrs. Martine Kowal, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Medical Mutual of Ohio, the Edwin D. Northrup II Fund, the Reinberger Foundation, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Linda Harper, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Susan LaPine, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Suzanne Cushwa Rusnak and Jeff Rusnak, Ellen and Lowell Satre, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, Jack and Jeanette Walton, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
