CLEVELAND, OH.- Spectacular Freedom: Andrew Wyeth and the Modern American Watercolor at the Cleveland Museum of Art offers the first in-depth exploration of Andrew Wyeth’s relationship with watercolor. Featuring nearly 75 rarely seen works from the artist’s estate—including 17 that have never been on view publicly and five that have not been exhibited in nearly a century—this scholarly exhibition is groundbreaking in size and depth. Selected tempera paintings accompany the watercolors and explore the deep connection and surprising interdependency of the two mediums in Wyeth’s practice—revealing just how much of his career was spent thinking about, and working on, paper.
The ticketed exhibition, on view from Sunday, September 20, 2026, through Monday, January 18, 2027, in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Gallery, is the first Cleveland presentation of this celebrated artist’s work.
Spectacular Freedom reveals that watercolor was central to Wyeth’s art from a young age, after he received a set of paints at the age of just 13. Wyeth began to experiment with the medium at the height of its popularity in the United States, not only encouraging his practice but also informing the fundamental questions engaged by his work about what it meant to be American and modern at that time. By 1937, when he had his first major solo exhibition of watercolors, Wyeth was seen as one of the country’s most talented painters, leading one critic to describe his watercolors as having a “spectacular freedom.”
Favored for its portability and expressive freedom, watercolor allowed Wyeth to work outdoors and directly from nature. He returned to subjects near his homes in Pennsylvania and Maine repeatedly, developing a practice that was based on place. While watercolor landscape painting was already a long-standing American tradition, Wyeth used it in a way that was entirely his own, favoring unexpected details and unconventional viewpoints.
Spectacular Freedom features six thematic sections: Wyeth’s early work, his images of coastal Maine and rural Pennsylvania, his interest in reenvisioning landscape, intimate images of private life, and his unexpected interest in abstraction. The exhibition also features a selection of the artist’s own materials, including paints, brushes, and other tools. The exhibited watercolors were kept by the artist and his wife and creative partner, Betsy, for their family collection throughout their lives. Thanks to a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the Brandywine Museum of Art, visitors have a unique opportunity to experience these artworks up close.
“Beginning in the 1930s, Andrew Wyeth built a monumental reputation for his evocative use of watercolor, depicting the people and places that surrounded him in rural Pennsylvania and Maine,” said Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings at the CMA. “Although Wyeth is often thought of today for his tempera paintings, watercolor was a constant throughout his incredibly prolific career. His works in the medium reveal a completely new and surprising side of an otherwise well-known artist. Through the works on view, we can see Wyeth actively reconsidering the American watercolor tradition, endlessly shifting his perspective and technique in order to create works that revolutionized the possibilities of the medium.”
While he worked slowly in the medium, Wyeth created thousands of watercolors throughout his long career. His watercolor practice varied widely over the decades explored in the exhibition, resulting in innovative works, both sketches and finished sheets. These ranged from vivid, painted landscapes to precisely rendered interior scenes to completely abstract compositions, as well as preparatory studies for the tempera paintings he produced alongside his watercolors.
Despite their key role, Wyeth’s watercolors have received comparatively little attention, as he gradually became better known for his tempera works. Spectacular Freedom reconsiders one of the most celebrated American artists of the past century by highlighting his creative process and showcasing a previously unknown aspect of his lifelong practice.
A richly illustrated publication, with essays by historians of American art and works on paper, accompanies the exhibition.
