Andrew Wyeth’s Helga Pictures (Limited Edition)

Debuting in 1987 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., this exceptional exhibition featured more than 70 works from the Helga series, including paintings in tempera and dry brush as well as drawings and works in watercolor. From 1971 to 1985, Wyeth undertook a long, intensive study of one model, Helga Testorf. Testorf was one of the artist’s neighbors in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Wyeth’s private project for some 14 years. The sheer volume of the project—approximately 240 works—and the investigatory, diverse, almost obsessive nature of the portraiture is characteristic in many ways of Wyeth’s approach when painting a subject of special interest. The way it was created was perhaps less typical. Wyeth conducted his series of drawings and paintings in almost total secrecy, revealing to no one the existence of the series, the identity of the model or the extent of the project. Helga Testorf provided a means for Wyeth to explore the complexity of the human figure. She was presented in almost every human aspect: clothed, nude, indoors, outdoors, in recognizable settings and against neutral backgrounds. With the Helga series, Wyeth tested the limits of his imagination using a single model. In 1985, Andrew Wyeth began admitting others into the private world he had created through the Helga series. Although the following year saw great media interest, the Helga series has been in the public eye only a few times.

Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures was organized by Washington’s National Gallery of Art and toured nationally by International Arts & Artists.