Off the Rack - Artist as Collector

Delaware based artist David Baldt is this week's guest blogger for our Artist as Collector Series.

©2013MichaelGrimaldi
Oil on Canvas
Collection of D. Baldt

My favorite artwork that I have purchased is a painting of a revolutionary war soldier's jacket by the artist Michael Grimaldi of New York City. I bought the painting years ago from American Artists at the Armory Show on the Drexel University campus in Philadelphia. I went there only to browse the selected pieces of art for sale that the collected galleries had brought in from out of town. I was surprised to see a few works by Andrew Wyeth there, which I love for their blend of stark realism and unspoken emotion. At one point as I moved through the show, I thought that I was seeing another painting by Wyeth as I walked up to it, but instead I found the painting to be by Michael Grimaldi, someone of whom I had never heard. The subject, a revolutionary war soldier's jacket hung on a thin wire hanger on a nail against a wall, looked to me to be as technically perfectly executed as a Wyeth. The canvas seemed overlayed with actual glowing fabric. Why such an important historical relic set on a thin wire hanger, I wondered? And the jacket was very like one that I once saw Andrew Wyeth wearing, while he was limping down a second floor hallway in the Brandywine River Museum.

This painting has brought into my home incredible technical artistry and ethereal imagery, as well as the revolutionary war history of the Brandywine Valley, Andrew Wyeth and his legacy and his eccentric love of costumes.

The price for this work, an oil about which guests have asked me if it is a Wyeth, was approximately the same price as one of the Wyeths being offered at show, divided by 1,000. 

Dave Baldt

Dave Baldt is a painter, sculptor, collector and an art board member living and working in the Brandywine Valley.

Wyeth's World

Little Stenning Farm
Landenberg, PA 

Little Stenning Farm
Landenberg, PA

These two photos are of a farm I walk past with my dogs.
Remind me of the beauty the Wyeth's found in
this area.

Earlier this week I visited the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA for the first time. Known for its Regional and American Art, and comprehensive collection of three generations of Wyeths, located in a renovated old Grist Mill, it is a beautiful setting not too far from my home.

There were treasures on every floor. I pulled out my "cheaters" for the Still Lifes (with amazing trompe l'oeils) and Portraits, and was then, drawn into the Wyeth's world.

N.C. Wyeth from
Treasure Island
I love the light and design
in this painting. The colors
in the painting which is at the museum are
brilliant!

All 3 generations impressed me with their undeniable craftsmanship and skill. I found myself drawn into N.C. Wyeth's paintings for Treasure Island (Pirates, Adventure and fabulous dramatic light!) and studying Jamie's draughtsmanship and composition.

But, it was Andrew's work that moved me- almost to tears.

Andrew Wyeth

It was his drawings and studies for his paintings alongside the paintings - that I could see, not only his technical abilities, but his humanity.  He painted his farmlife in Pennsylvania, his home in Maine, and the people and animals who touched him.

It was not trite, or sentimental, just a lifetime of looking, working - and loving.

Doesn't get any better than that.