John Wilde (1919-2006) was one of the most
notable artists in the Magic Realist school of painting, garnering
attention far beyond Wisconsin, his native state. Wilde's gift for
drawing and painting diverged from the style of regional artists such
as John Steuart Curry and evolved into an aesthetic characterized by
beguiling, intensely detailed images. He was particularly adept at
mixing the discipline of taxonomy with icons of the subconscious.
Things of nature and the nature of things informed his work for some
seventy years. In painstakingly crafted vignettes of figures and props
and still life arrangements, Wilde served up grand parables on the
existential condition of modern man. These are timeless and enduring
narratives, drawing on traditions from the northern and early
Renaissance periods and Flemish paintings to Symbolist and Surrealist
iconography and strategy. Wilde amasses a potpourri of sources and
motifs and brings them up to the present moment by setting his
compositions in the Wisconsin landscape just outside his studio door.
This catalogue presents a superb overview of Wilde's oeuvre, including
the full palette of still lifes, allegorical landscapes, and portraits,
and covers the period of his work from the 1940s to recent work from
the 1990s.
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Things of Nature and
the Nature of Things
John Wilde
by Lisa Wainwright
Chazen
Museum of Art, 2006
Order
a copy |
