Toy Pieta

Scott Avett is a painter and printmaker who grew up in rural North Carolina. He is also a musician, songwriter, and singer in the folk-rock band The Avett Brothers, which he co-founded with his younger brother Seth. His first solo museum exhibition at the NCMA, Scott Avett: INVISIBLE, featured large-scale oil paintings that depict himself and his family. Toy Pieta was featured in this exhibition. 

I rely on exploiting my own personal relationships with my family, because . . . it’s what I know, and I just trust that it is relatable because it’s a human experience.

Scott Avett

Avett’s intimate portrayals of himself and his family in his art are inspired by his own experiences of marriage, parenthood, and living in the South. In this painting Avett depicts his wife Sarah, surrounded by their children, and himself as a seated figure in the background. The work is painted in an Italian baroque-inspired style, which features deep colors, dramatic lighting, defined shadows, and a dark background. 

The title and composition of this painting refer to an iconic image of motherhood that can be found throughout art history. This imagery, known as the pietà (Italian for “pity” or “compassion”), represents the Virgin Mary cradling the body of Jesus after he was crucified. In Christian art this image of a mother holding her son is considered to be a symbol of love, loss, and hope. One of the most famous works of art that portrays this image is Michelangelo’s sculpture, Madonna della Pietà (also known as the Pietà). Michelangelo carved the sculpture of Mary holding Jesus from a single block of Carrara marble between 1498 and 1500. In Avett’s Toy Pieta, his wife cradles their son on her lap in a similar position.

Avett earned a BFA in studio art from East Carolina University in 2000. In 2002 he opened an art gallery in the city of Concord, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and their children.