Breaking Ground in the Arts: Wharton Esherick’s Painting Days

How did painting change the trajectory of 20th century design in America? Join us on Monday, April 13th at 10:30 AM for an exclusive program at the Wharton Esherick Museum focused on Esherick’s early career as a painter. While Esherick is most readily associated with furniture making and sculpture today, his story as an artist began with painting after two years of formal instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of well known American Impressionists Cecelia Beaux and William Merritt Chase. Esherick’s paintings didn’t garner the attention that his later work in wood received, but these were pivotal years for the artist’s practice when he began honing his ideas about art and found the trajectory that sent him toward his later work in three-dimensions.

Explore Esherick’s early career as a painter through a selection of rarely seen oil and watercolor paintings, hand-carved and gilded frames, and related materials from our special collections and archives in the 1956 Workshop. WEM curators Emily Zilber and Holly Gore as well as collections manager Ethan Snyder will be sharing their expertise. Afterwards, we’ll take a tour through Esherick’s Studio to highlight different ways Esherick’s training as a painter informed his furniture-making, sculpture, and building practices.

The program begins with a brief introduction to Esherick’s life and work at 10:30 AM before participants are invited into the 1956 Workshop designed by Louis Kahn and Anne Tyng to look at materials from WEM’s collection rarely on view and talk with staff. Around 11:30 participants will be invited into Esherick’s Home and Studio for a paint focused tour of the Studio.