That's where American artist Andrew Wyeth found inspiration for the paintings of 'Close Friends'

Throughout history, artists have traveled the world in search of creative inspiration. For celebrated American artist Andrew Wyeth, however, such inspiration could be found, quite literally, outside his front door.

"Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends," on display at the Telfair Museum of Art from Sept. 13-Dec. 31, features 74 original works depicting the artist's African-American friends and neighbors. Organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art in close cooperation with the artist and his wife Betsy, the exhibit features detailed graphite drawings and intimate oil, egg tempera and watercolor paintings created between 1933 and 2000. The art on display is drawn from public and private collections, with much of the work having been exhibited only rarely.

The Telfair is one of only three venues in the nation selected to host this groundbreaking exhibition.

"We've never had a large-scale Wyeth show here in Savannah," says Holly Koons McCullough, curator of fine arts and exhibitions at the Telfair Museum of Art. "He's an important 20th-century artist. On a technical level, he is a brilliant painter. His work has universal appeal."

"Close Friends" boldly explores the world just over the ridge from the artist's studio in rural Pennsylvania, conveying a powerful sense of community. Beginning in the 1930's, many of Wyeth's neighbors posed for him in their own homes or in the artist's studio. The paintings document more than 20 of the artist's neighbors, friends and acquaintances, including detailed depictions of their homes, farms and land.

The exhibit serves as a document of a community in which people lived side by side, regardless of the color of their skin. Most of the people portrayed in Wyeth's portraits have since died, making "Close Friends" an important record of a community that, in many ways, exists only in memory.

Widely known as "America's Painter" due to his realistic depiction of everyday rural America, Wyeth has lived most of his life in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Penn., located on the banks of the Brandywine River. Wyeth created such iconic images as "Christina's World" and a legendary series of paintings of his neighbor Helga Testorf from his Pennsylvania studio.

"Close Friends" demonstrates the artist's talent for keen observation and gift for realism. Throughout all of the portraits, however, the viewer is struck by the artist's intuitive understanding of the importance of relationships and his deeply rooted sense of compassion.

"I think one's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes," he once said. "I see no reason for painting but that. If I have anything to offer, it is my emotional contact with the place where I live and the people I do."

That "emotional contact" forms the heart and soul of "Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends." From the stoic majesty of his neighbor, Adam Johnson, to the lush sensuality of his acquaintance Senna Moore, Wyeth captures the spirit of his subjects, in all their humble beauty.

"These works are, perhaps, among the artist's purest paintings, ones that are virtually devoid of metaphor and symbolism," explains Mississippi Museum of Art Director R. Andrew Maass. "The subjects are real. To Wyeth, they are the earth; they are nature itself, not metaphors for something else."

In "Adam," a 1963 portrait of his neighbor, Adam Johnson, Wyeth paints his friend standing in front of his ramshackle property, his eyes closed, his body braced against the elements. A fur-lined hat frames his face, Eskimo-style, as he braves the season. "Alexander Chandler," a 1955 drybrush on paper portrait, depicts a local blind man sitting on a block of wood clutching his cane with elegant, weathered hands.

"Granddaughter," a 1956 drybrush and watercolor portrait of a young girl painted in profile, captures the modest beauty of the blind man's granddaughter, conveying a powerful sense of time and place. Warm sunlight reflects off the face of the young girl as she stands in front of a run-down clapboard house.

"The Drifter," a 1964 portrait, captures Willard Snowden wearing a sand-colored corduroy jacket, his eyes downcast and meditative. After observing Wyeth at work, Snowden became a subject for the artist's drawings, eventually becoming one of his most important models and living in the artist's studio for 15 years. Snowden's visage recurs throughout "Close Friends" in various poses -- seated in a chair in the artist's studio, reclining on a snowy field and even passed out on a nearby path after drinking too much wine.

The most recent painting on display in "Close Friends" is "Dryad," a sensual painting of a nude woman standing in the hollowed-out center of a tree trunk in the midst of flat Pennsylvania farmland. The 2000 painting celebrates the relationship between the body and the landscape, evoking an earthly spirituality that connects us with our surroundings. Wyeth's later nudes, which are often charged with an erotic edge, recall the sensuality of his infamous Helga paintings.

Born in 1917, Wyeth was educated at home by private tutors. As a young boy, he studied art with his father, the successful illustrator N.C. Wyeth. At the age of 20, Wyeth held his first solo exhibition at New York City's Macbeth Gallery, where he sold every work in the show within 24 hours of the opening. Wyeth married Betsy James in 1940 and painted "Christina's World," which was later acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in 1948. Wyeth's paintings have been exhibited worldwide, with shows at most major museums in the United States, as well as in Russia, Europe and Japan.

This critically acclaimed artist has won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Gold Medal for Painting from the Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1965, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1990. The artist continues to paint at his Pennsylvania studio and divides his time between Chadds Ford and Midcoast, Maine.

"Close Friends" traces Wyeth's evolution from a meticulous colorist to a dedicated realist, chronicling his shift towards muted, earthy hues that reflect the color, texture and emotions of his native Pennsylvania. Devoid of sugary sentiment or moralistic messages, "Close Friends" documents the people and places that impacted Wyeth, conveying a love of community and a powerful sense of place.

"I think people will be pleasantly surprised by this exhibit," says McCullough. "When you look at Wyeth's paintings, you feel the connection between the artist and the subject. These paintings communicate with the viewer. There's a level of emotional intensity to these works that makes them quite exceptional."

RELATED EVENTS

September 19: Art for Lunch Film, "Andrew Wyeth Self Portrait: Snow Hill" at 12:30 p.m. at the Telfair Museum of Art. This 60-minute authorized documentary includes work spanning the length of Wyeth's career.

September 30: Martha Severens, curator of the Greenville County Museum of Art, presents a lecture on "Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends and the Black Image in Art History" at 3 p.m. at the Telfair Museum of Art.

October 7: Family Sunday: African American Folklife Fest from 2-5 p.m. at the Telfair Museum of Art. Featuring Sapelo Island storyteller Cornelia Bailey, the McIntosh County Shouters and North Carolina blues guitarist Algia Mae Hinton, as well as demonstrations of broom making, weaving nets and walking stick carving.

October 10: Telfair Museum of Art curator Holly Koons McCullough presents an Art for Lunch Gallery talk on "Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends" at 12:30 p.m. at the Telfair Museum of Art.

October 23: Richard Meryman, Wyeth's official biographer and author of "Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life," will present the Gilmer Evening Lecture at 7 p.m. at the Telfair Museum of Art.

November 14: Art for Lunch Film, "Wondrous Strange: A Conversation with Andrew and Jamie Wyeth on the Wyeth Tradition." This 24-minute film is narrated by Mel Ferrer and was produced in conjunction with a 1998 exhibition of Wyeth's work.