Joséphine Douet & Andrew Wyeth: The Secret Sits

JOSÉPHINE DOUET & ANDREW WYETH

T HE

S ECR ET

S IT S

Cover: Joséphine Douet, Helga (detail), 2015, Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag 320 gr., 28 x 18 1/2 inches

JOSÉPHINE DOUET & ANDREW WYETH:

THE

SECRET

SITS

JUNE 30 – SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

The Fuller Building 595 Madison Avenue, 4th Floor New York, NY 10022 (212) 439-6800 | info@adelsongalleries.com | www.adelsongalleries.com

“We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.”

– Robert Frost

For an artist, exploring the close at hand means penetrating a never-ending mystery.

Through his painting, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) became one of the few great masters capable of delving into and revealing this enigma. Wyeth’s work, which is both completely individual and distinctive, is now regarded as a key pillar of the vision of modern America for his deep, manipulative and obsessive work on his close circle. His native town, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, provided his source of inspiration for his form of abstract realism, achieved through the exploration of its natural setting, buildings and inhabitants.

My decision to follow in Wyeth’s footsteps and retrace this intimate relationship in order to photograph and share it arose from a combination of admiration and artistic challenge. My aim was to capture something of the mystery and essence of Wyeth – of his modus operandi with settings and models – for which purpose I walked among the hills of Chadds City and forced an intimacy with its inhabitants.

Living among these people and this place for a limited time offered me a new perspective and enabled me to create my own proximity and photograph it. It allowed me to work on the feeling of belonging to a place. This was a process of finding myself “out of place,” a deliberate dislocation in order to start afresh in my relationships with the area and its people to the point of breaking down distances and grasping something of that intimacy, penetrating the enigma once again, dealing with seduction, distance and uneasiness – both from the model’s side and from mine.

As a kind of artistic mise en abîme, not only did I build up close relationships with the people of Chadds Ford, but also with some of Andrew Wyeth’s former models, including Helga Testorf, his secret model for fifteen years, in a never-ending game of mirrors between painting and photography.

The 12 photographs included in this show have thus arisen in harmony with the painter’s own sensibility as both a continuation and variation of it, given that my sense of closeness is a different one and the secrets that it reveals are hitting different spots. I created my own parallel world from and inside his.

– Joséphine Douet

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Overflow Study, 1978 Watercolor on paper 21 x 28 7/8 inches 6

Joséphine Douet Girl From Maine, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 7

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Wylie’s Scythe, 1986 Watercolor on paper 22 x 29 7/8 inches 8

Joséphine Douet Fog at the Mill, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

18 x 27 inches 9

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) The Sharpshooter, 1997 Watercolor on paper 19 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches 10

Joséphine Douet Andy's Swede, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 11

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Back Entry, 1971 Watercolor on paper 29 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches 12

Joséphine Douet The Granery, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 13

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Snowed In, 1980 Watercolor on paper 19 3/8 x 26 1/2 inches 14

Joséphine Douet Karl's Toychest, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 15

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Pageboy, 1979 Watercolor and pencil on paper 13 5/8 x 11 inches 16

Joséphine Douet Helga, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 17

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) In the Doorway, 1984 Watercolor on paper 23 5/8 x 18 inches 18

Joséphine Douet Shotgun, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 19

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Lil’ Anna, 1992 Watercolor on paper 26 3/8 x 22 inches 20

Joséphine Douet Rubber Ivy, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

18 x 27 inches 21

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Dock Pilings, 1962 Watercolor on paper 13 3/4 x 19 inches 22

Joséphine Douet Meadow, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

18 x 27 inches 23

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) In the Orchard, 1979 Watercolor on paper 16 7/8 x 20 7/8 inches 24

Joséphine Douet Rotten Squash, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 25

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Black Velvet (assoc. with #46, drybrush), 1972 Watercolor and pencil on paper 21 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches 26

Joséphine Douet Scavenger, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

27 x 18 inches 27

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) Undercover, 1970 Drybrush (double-sided) 29 x 37 inches En Verso: Watercolor study for Evening at Kuerner's 28

Joséphine Douet Rascal, 2015 Giclee print on Hahnemulle Photorag paper 320 gr.

18 x 27 inches 29

For more information, please contact: ALAN ADELSON Director, New York alan@adelsongalleries.com (917) 796-4622

ADELSON GALLERIES The Fuller Building

GEORGIA ADELSON

595 Madison Avenue, 4 th Floor

Gallery Manager

(212) 439-6800

georgia@adelsongalleries.com

info@adelsongalleries.com

(203) 300-0974

www.adelsongalleries.com

30