Buck, Director of The Brooklyn Museum, in commenting on the announced plans, said: “We are pleased to be able to provide an opportunity for New York audiences to view an exhibition that is the subject of such great public interest. Moreover, the New York presentation will also feature an as yet undetermined number of additional works to be drawn from the complete series, which numbers 240 works on paper. Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, an exhibition of 140 drawings and watercolors depicting the artist’s neighbor, Helga Testorf, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, will open at The Brooklyn Museum June 16 and be on view through September 18, 1989. The Brooklyn Museum has announced plans to organize an exhibition of Andrew Wyeth’s “The Helga Pictures” for the summer of 1989, following the conclusion of a six-city tour organized by the National Gallery of Art that does not include New York. For more information about Collier Schorr’s inspiration from Andrew Wyeth, see the art21 blog at. Schorr used Helga as a template for her photographs of Jens. Enthralled with this notion of intruding on a personal and private moment, Schorr followed her muse, German teenager Jens F., for nearly six years after meeting him on a train in 1999. The American born photographer was fascinated by how Andrew grew to know his subjects personally and on a level of intimacy that some claim to be rather obsessive in nature.

As the viewer, I feel as though I am looking in on a private moment of true intimacy between artist and model.Ĭontemporary artist Collier Schorr was especially inspired by Andrew’s paintings. All the works of Helga that are featured in museum are visually stunning and capture light and skin tone in such a manner that the viewer might be fooled into thinking they are sitting in Andrew’s position as he paints her. The Brandywine River Museum is currently host to three beautiful examples: Lovers, 1981, Night Shadow, 1978 and Baracoon completed in 1976. Known collectively as The Helga Pictures, Andrew Wyeth’s 247 known works of his neighbor Helga Testorf are one the most distinguished and ample studies of a single subject by a lone artist. One aspect of the Brandywine River Museum that I cherish most, and many visitors appreciate as well, is the opportunity to view portraits of Helga that are often on display in the Andrew Wyeth Gallery.įrom 1971 to 1985, Wyeth painted and sketched Helga Testorf, a German neighbor of the Wyeth’s who had been a nurse to the owner of the Keurner farm in his dying years.

The helga pictures