It captures the illusion of Warhol as only a master portrait artist can; somewhat dazed and fragile, looking much as if Warhol had aimed his famed 16mm camera onto himself. This is Wyeth at his most spectacular, in full control of unbelievable genetic technical skills that were evident at a tender age (he had his first New York gallery show at the age of 20).
These early skills are seen at the exhibition in his "Portrait of Shorty," done in 1963 when Wyeth was 17, and a portrait of President Kennedy done four years later that apparently was applauded by his widowed wife but disliked by the Kennedy clan, for it showed JFK as a worried leader biting his fingernails, as Kennedy did when under stress.
The portrait of former president John F. Kennedy was exhibited at the Coe Kerr Gallery in 1974 and in the catalogue for that exhibition, Ted Stebbins (now Director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts), wrote that "James Wyeth is a genuine master of the portrait ... at twenty eight he has reached artistic maturity."
Eighteen years his senior, Andy Warhol’s portraits of Wyeth are part of Warhol’s signature pieces: one is a projected line drawing done mechanically from Warhol’s Polaroid camera and the second a paint and silkscreen ink on canvas painting.
They depict Wyeth as a dreamy-eyed, handsome male prototype, a depiction that Warhol would revisit years later with Basquiat. In the drawings, Wyeth's lips are visited often by Warhol's pencil, delineating every line and crevice. "Jamie is just as cute in New York as he is in Chadds Ford," said Warhol in 1976, "and what I hope to reveal in the portrait is Jamie’s cuteness."
If Jamie Wyeth’s artwork was "diametrically opposite" to that of Warhol, it exists on another art history universe from that of art school icon Jean-Michel Basquiat.
New Yorker Jean-Michel Basquiat was the son of New York Rican and Haitian parents. His aggressive graffiti slogans had entertained the New York art world in the late 70’s while pissing off most other New Yorkers who were sick and tired of the thousands of graffiti "artists" (such as me actually - my "canvasses" were on the subway cars of the LL train from Brooklyn and the 7 train in Queens, both of which I took daily to go to High School) who roamed the streets and subways of the seven boroughs.
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1 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus today, October 6th.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor