BELFAST— James Duff, the former director of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, has spent much of the last 45 years of his career contemplating the works of Andrew Wyeth. He has observed various misconceptions that critics, scholars and the public have had about Andrew Wyeth's intentions and the content of his work.

Repeating the presentation he gave for the Farnsworth Museum last July at the Strand Theatre, Duff will offer some of his observations in a presentation titled "Conceptions of Andrew Wyeth from the Mistaken to the Absurd" at the Old Professor's Bookshop, Saturday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m.

"It's a look at how critics and scholars and people interested in the fine arts have mischaracterized his work over the years, in some cases with great hostility and in other cases just with misunderstanding of what he was doing," said Duff. To illustrate an an example of the absurd, Duff said, "Many dozens, if not hundreds of writers, have compared Wyeth to Norman Rockwell."

Duff and his family moved to Belfast last year after retiring five years ago from the Brandywine River Museum. He has authored a book coming out next spring published jointly by the Brandywine River Museum and Rizzoli titled Andrew Wyeth's Snow Hill.

The Brandywine River Museum located in Chadds Ford, Penn., the birthplace of Andrew Wyeth, is the only other museum besides Maine's Farnsworth Art Museum in the country with an extensive Wyeth collection.

The presentation is free to the public and will run one hour. For more information about the eventvisit: Old Professor’s Bookshop

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com