Rural Pennsylvania Artists and American Modernism

Join us on Thursday, April 9th at 6:00 PM for a talk in the 1956 Workshop by the Brandywine Museum of Art’s Senior Curator, and co-curator of The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick, Amanda Burdan. Amanda will be building on WEM’s Spring exhibition, Pennsylvania Modern: Regionalism and the Wharton Esherick Studio by discussing the way that Pennsylvania artists like N.C. Wyeth, Charles Demuth, Ralston Crawford, and Charles Sheeler, painted familiar regional scenes in order to explore novel modernist techniques for American audiences. This talk illuminates Wharton Esherick and his contemporaries in rural Pennsylvania as they engaged with the region’s industrial and heritage buildings—such as bank barns, mills, and farmhouses.

After the talk, WEM curators Emily Zilber and Holly Gore will join Amanda for a guided Q&A discussion. Participants are welcome to peruse WEM’s Spring exhibition Pennsylvania Modern: Regionalism and the Wharton Esherick Studio in the Visitor Center at 5:30 PM for the half hour before the program. Light refreshments will be provided.