Relative values | 3 July 2010

The Wyeth Family: Three Generations of American Art
Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 22 August

There have been a number of painting dynasties in the history of art — families such as the Bruegels, the Bellinis and the Tiepolos — but fewer in recent years, British art having favoured the older brother syndrome (Paul Nash and John, Stanley Spencer and Gilbert). The Wyeth family is a glorious exception, an American family obsessed with realist painting, and an encouraging phenomenon to study. Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) is the best known of the painter Wyeths, and indeed the most talented. He is a remarkable artist, and it is his name that will probably attract many of the visitors to Dulwich. But this is not an exhibition of Andrew Wyeth’s work, so don’t come looking for one. It is both more and less than that.

More because it demonstrates the context in which he developed, by beginning the show with the work of his father, N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945), a great American illustrator and lushly dramatic painter; and less because there is simply not enough work by Andrew Wyeth to justify museum exposure of this collection. So where has this group of work come from? It all belongs to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Collection, so the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibition are the strengths and weaknesses of a corporate collecting policy. I concede that in these cash-strapped times it is difficult to keep raising the funding to produce a programme of hit exhibitions, and that other solutions — such as taking on a ready-made collection — begin to look exceedingly attractive. However, there are dangers in such a strategy, and disappointed audiences are a possible outcome.

That said, I enjoyed The Wyeth Family show rather more than expected: partly because N.C.