John Wilde
Paintings
To see additional works or for more information please contact the gallery at tory@toryfolliard.com.
Drawings
To see additional works or for more information please contact the gallery at tory@toryfolliard.com.
Prints
To see additional works or for more information please contact the gallery at tory@toryfolliard.com.
John Wilde (1919-2006)
One of the most influential artists in the Midwest and a leader in the American Surrealist movement, John Wilde was a widely respected painter, renowned draftsman, and master of silverpoint. His works are among the most powerful, startling, and brilliant images of his generation and his impact on American art is just beginning to be realized.
Through juxtapositions of scale and twists of fantasy, Wilde makes the common uncommon in a landscape strewn with the real and the imaginary. Drawing from the visual language of surrealism his images capture the dreamlike world of the subconscious with a sharpness of focus only a master draftsman could achieve.
“There is no good, no evil, only the thing in the moment. The marvelous beauty of the vista, just now, not later, and death claws at your flanks.” (John Wilde)
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 12, 1919, Wilde studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as an artist in the Army during WWII. After the war, Wilde returned to the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a master’s degree in art history and taught art studio courses from 1948 until his retirement in 1982. Although he received national acclaim and his works can be found in many major museums and private collections across the country, Wilde remained in Wisconsin where he helped shape the cultural identity of the state and inspired generations of artists for over six decades.
Wilde’s paintings and drawings are in museum collections across the country including the: Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Milwaukee Art Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI; Yale University, New Haven, CT; Portland Art Museum; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee WI.
Works by John Wilde have been included in recent major exhibitions including: Wildeworld: The Art of John Wilde (1999) Elvehjem Musuem of Art, Madison, WI; Surrealism USA, (2005) National Academy of Design, New York; With Friends: Six Magic Realists 1940-1965, (2005) and Things of Nature and the Nature of Things: John Wilde (2006) Chazen Museum of Art;Wilde’s Wilde’s: A Very Private Collection (2015) Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI; and Surrealism: The Conjured Life (2015) Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago.
The Tory Folliard Gallery is the exclusive representative of works by John Wilde from the John and Shirley Wilde Estate. To view additional works please contact Tory Folliard at tory@toryfolliard.com.
