The Importance of Place

Wyeth: “I can wander over timeless hills. This one hill becomes thousands of hills to me. In finding this one object, I found a world.”

Reynolda House Museum of Art is hosting “Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm” through May 25, 2025. The exhibit notes: Wyeth “largely devoted his painting and sketching to a five-mile radius encircling each homeplace. Through this immersion and focus, he sought to deepen his understanding beyond the visible surfaces of things to identify and share that which is universal beneath.“

From the exhibit: …Andrew Wyeth created hundreds of works of art at Kuerner Farm. This commitment clarifies something fundamental to his life’s work: he is what we might call a “place-based” artist, rooted in narrowly defined regions and committed to exploring and knowing them deeply. Although he enjoyed sufficient success in his own lifetime to travel anywhere and paint anything, he made a conscious choice to commit to two chosen locations rather than spreading his practice father. He divided each year evening between Chadds Ford, PA and midcoast Maine. In both locales, he largely devoted his painting and sketching to a five-mile radius encircling each homeplace. Through this immersion and focus, he sought to deepen his understanding beyond the visible surfaces of things to identify and share that which is universal beneath.

As he said, “I’m limited if I travel. That is the strange effect it has on me. I feel more free in the surroundings that I don’t have to be conscious of it. I’ll say that I love the object, or I love the hill. But that hill sets me free. I can wander over timeless hills. This one hills becomes thousands of hills to me. In finding this one object, I found a world.

The artworks in this section reflect a kaleidoscopic view of how he navigated that world. We might picture the artist, materials in hand walking the ten minutes over to Kuerner Farm from his studio. We imagine him absorbing the colors, sounds and movements of this familiar place on a given day and waiting for the flash of inspiration that would compel him to sit down on the ground with a sheet across his lap to capture an impression immediately.

“I can wander over timeless hills.” It inspired me to ponder the timeless places and spaces that I return to time and time again. And reminds me of “the intimate familiarity of a place known because we have visited again and again, in so many different moments.“