This insightful collection of works examines how each artist individually honed his expertise at rendering the human form. Andrew observed live models (who eventually tired of posing), “so that he could meticulously obsess over every muscle and fold and crease in the body,” Wyeth states. Jamie found an intricate understanding of human anatomy (plus subjects that did not complain) at the morgue. The practice, equal parts brilliant and macabre, “helped him to understand the underlying structures and how they informed what the external features looked like,” she states. In N.C.’s work, you see the artistic voice that guided them both. Selected works by Carolyn Wyeth, an accomplished artist in her own right who was trained by her father N.C. and instructed her nephew Jamie, round out the exhibition.

These collective early works, some never before displayed, give glimpses into each artist’s oeuvre. “Without these basic figurative drawings, we never would have had Blind Pew from N.C.’s Treasure Island, Christina Olson from Andy’s Christina’s World, or Jamie’s countless paintings of [dancer] Rudolf Nureyev,” Wyeth says.