The Right Time for Esherick

Esherick’s bedroom in its current arrangement for Art, Work, and Everyday Life: A New Look at the Esherick Studio.

2024 was a year of rhythms for the Wharton Esherick Museum. We approached this theme in varied ways, exploring the rhythms found in movement, growth and dance, the rhythms of work and of making, the rhythms of daily life and domestic habits. Artists in our juried woodworking show offered insightful and creative takes on what rhythms could mean for contemporary makers, and our solstice events served to draw us back in line with the rhythms of the natural world. Our year was also marked by the major exhibition The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick at the Brandywine Museum of Art which draws exclusively from WEM’s collection to bring over 70 works by Esherick to a broader public. The exhibition is framed in thematic vignettes that examine Esherick’s unconventional way of life and some of his key artistic interests—urban versus rural life, the movement of the body in space, the power of patterns, and the organic growth of the natural world—allowing guests to draw connections across time and see the recurrent subjects that held Esherick’s interest over his seven-decade-long career. Back at WEM, we took the opportunity to reintroduce the Studio as an ever-changing space of creative activity, a space that was arranged and rearranged in countless configurations throughout its lifetime. In Art, Work, and Everyday Life: A New Look at Esherick’s Studio, on view through September 2025, these new installations highlight both the artworks and the ephemera of Esherick’s daily life — from work tables and easels to clothes and handmade ceramic dishes.

Over the course of an average year, tours of Esherick’s Studio at WEM serve around 5,000 visitors annually — a number dictated by the very nature of the intimate space and the preservation needs of such a unique structure. While The Crafted World is on view at all three venues (after the Brandywine, the exhibition travels to the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI and the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, OH) it is estimated that around 120,000 guests will experience Esherick’s work, strolling through the galleries, being greeted by the weighty textural carving of the Drop Leaf Desk, the graceful twist of the Library Ladder, or a playful figurative light pull dangling from above. Many guests may be hearing his name for the first time.

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

Wharton Esherick’s work is not only being seen by broader audiences through the Crafted World exhibition, but that work is being presented with a new sense of relevance. Esherick’s approach to living, his valuing of the handmade, of the organic, of humor, irreverence, and improvisation, can offer meaningful lessons to all of us. In tune with a rhythm sounding well beyond our single organization, Esherick’s work and life have renewed significance and resonance in an increasingly harried and divided world, whether framed by lifestyle, our relationships to each other, or the integrity of the materials with which we surround ourselves and welcome into our daily lives. In recent media coverage (scroll down for some of our favorites), the timeliness of the exhibition is noted, with a sense that Esherick is an artist whose work is deeply significant to our current moment, and that if you don’t know his work, it’s time to change that.

While WEM closes its doors to the public in January and February (a time for preventative collections care, preservation projects, and preparations for the next tour season), The Craft World is on display at the Brandywine through January 19 before heading of to the Chazen. We encourage you to visit if you haven’t yet, to bring a friend or a family member, and to share the work of Wharton Esherick with others and let it bring a little beauty and warmth into your January. Familiar works from the Studio can be appreciated in an entirely new light in the galleries, inviting a singular clarity and individual attention for each piece.

The end of a year offers a familiar rhythm of its own, a moment for reflection and renewed purpose. Countless guests on tours at the Esherick Museum tell us how they bring all their out-of-town guests to see WEM, to share that spirit and keep it alive. We are so grateful that you see the value in preserving and sharing Esherick’s life and work with the world. Thank you. Your support makes all the difference. We’re glad to have you along for what WEM’s future holds.