Eliza Geeslin & Ally Kontra

Fall 2014

Don Wynn

Don Wynn was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1942. In 1978 he became the first living artist to be given a solo exhibition at the Adirondack Museum. Don Wynn’s work is technically classified as New Realism, but his art has developed over his career to be distinctive of this movement ("Don Wynn"). His depictions are not literal renditions of his subjects; instead they are interpretive with subliminal or allusive meanings. Wynn’s paintings are complicated and achieve a very visually pleasing and psychological result. Many things inspire him—the Adirondacks are just one of his inspirations.

This painting is a good example of Wynn's style. He uses a lot of paint and creates a very complicated surface. The result is a very textural painting, which works well for depictions of the wilderness. His colors are muted and muddy, representing the wilderness as a dark and foreboding place.

This painting actually depicts outsiders in the Adirondacks. It is odd to see a landscape of the Adirondacks with a car in it, so this stands out as a modern interpretation of the Adirondacks. Don Wynn's experience of the Adirondacks coincides with the experience of hunters who travel to the Adirondacks to hunt. He, and the hunters, are outsiders of the Adirondacks. 

Again, this print presents an outside view of the Adirondacks: specifically, how the Adirondacks look from Vermont. Painting is not the only type of outsider art, and this is a particularly good example of a different medium.