The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick opened at the Brandywine Museum of Art last month and, if you haven’t made time to visit yet, this in-depth coverage by Peter Crimmins of WHYY may be just the nudge you need! This major exhibition features more than 70 works by Wharton Esherick and is the first to draw exclusively from WEM’s collection, including many objects never before seen outside of Esherick’s Studio. Artworks from across different media —from painting, sculpture, and printmaking to woodworking, furniture making and illustration—are in conversation with each other throughout the exhibition, presented in thematic vignettes that bring the many layers of Esherick’s career to life in the gallery.

 

The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick on view at the Brandywine Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the Brandywine Museum of Art.

 

In his insightful piece, Crimmins highlights the similarities shared between Brandywine and WEM — as two sites “tucked into the woods 30 miles apart” and stewarding the historic studios of artists whose impact on the art world stretched well beyond their local roots. Crimmins quotes Brandywine Senior Curator Amanda Burdan’s reflecting how, “Just 30 miles away we have another artist who is so closely connected and so contemporary to the Wyeths and yet working in such a different style. It gives a fuller picture of suburban and rural Pennsylvania.”

The Crafted World features a range of deeply significant sculptural furniture pieces across the timeline of his career including his 1927 Drop Leaf Desk, whose dynamically carved surfaces and gently tapering angles sing with renewed energy in the bright lights of the white-walled gallery space, and the iconic Music Stand, a form which arches gracefully, in Crimmins’ words, “like a dancer bending backward.”

 

Esherick’s double and single music stands arch gracefully beside each other in The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick. Image courtesy of the Brandywine Museum of Art.

 

Even if you’ve been to Esherick’s Studio dozens of times, and known the works in the exhibition well, the galleries at Brandywine offer an entirely new look at these celebrated objects. WEM Executive Director Julie Siglin told Crimmins, “While [curator Emily Zilber] was doing a docent training, I was not paying attention for three full minutes because I’m looking at the double music stand,” she said. “The curvature of the legs on this double music stand really didn’t feel known to me until today.”

Read the complete article by Peter Crimmins at WHYY here — before heading over to the Brandywine to see it for yourself!

The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick is on view through January 19, 2025. After debuting at the Brandywine, the exhibition will travel to two additional museums across the country — the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI and the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, OH.

 

Wondering what’s on view in Esherick’s Studio in the meantime? Learn more about the new installations now on view! 

 

 

 

Post written by Katie Wynne, Deputy Director of Operations and Public Engagement

November 2024