The World Behind Wyeth’s Christina’s World

Bought by the MoMA in 1948, the same year it was painted, Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World entered the American art pantheon seemingly once it was dry. For more than half a century, viewers have been captivated by the mysterious scene of a young woman crawling across a field towards a house on top of a hill. In Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, and the Olson House, an exhibition at The Farnsworth Art Museum through October 30, 2011, some of the mystery behind the masterpiece is finally solved. This collection of 45 works, including Wyeth’s first ever sketched idea for Christina’s World, allows us to see the world behind Wyeth’s World and connect even more deeply with the man and his art. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The World Behind Wyeth’s Christina’s World."

[Image: Author’s own photo from the January 31, 2009 memorial for Andrew Wyeth at the Brandywine River Museum. No images from this exhibition were made available to the online-only press, unfortunately, but you can see some of the works from the exhibition here.]

[Many thanks to Rizzoli for providing me with a review copy of Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, and the Olson House by Michael K. Komanecky and Otoyo Nakamura, the catalog to the The Farnsworth Art Museum’s exhibition of the same name, which runs through October 30, 2011.]

How Rembrandt Changed the Face of Jesus

Earlier this year a 2,000-year-old, credit-card-sized, lead booklet was found in a cave overlooking the Sea of Galilee bearing what looks to be the oldest portrait of Jesus Christ, perhaps made during the lifetime of those who knew what he looked like and, perhaps, the “true” face of Jesus. For millennia now, believers and nonbelievers have wondered what Jesus may have looked like and grasped at any and all evidence in their search. In the exhibition Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through October 11^th, a turning point in that search created by the artistic innovations of Rembrandt helps us see where that search has been and, perhaps, where that search will go. In learning how Rembrandt changed the face of Jesus from divine, inhuman perfection to human accessibility we can learn what the “true” face of Jesus might truly be. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "How Rembrandt Changed the Face of Jesus."

[Image: Head of Christ, c.1648 56. Attributed to Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and Studio, Dutch (active Leiden and Amsterdam), 1606-1669. Oil on oak panel, laid into larger oak panel, 14 1/16 x 12 5/16 inches (35.8 x 31.2 cm). Framed: 28 1/4 x 23 x 2 inches (71.8 x 58.4 x 5.1 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917.]

[Many thanks to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the image above and press materials for Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, which runs through October 30, 2011. Many thanks to Yale University Press for providing me with a review copy of the catalog to the exhibition, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, edited by Lloyd DeWitt.]