The paintings of four artists with strong Maine ties will be part of a traveling exhibition to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America.

The exhibit is called “True Colors: Meditations on the American Spirit.” It was organized by the Meridian International Center, an exchange institution in Washington, D.C., and will open Sept. 11 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Maine artists involved are Jamie Wyeth of Tenants Harbor; Tim Clark of West Bath; Everett Raymond Kinstler of Sebago and New York City; and Will Barnet, who lives in New York City but spent many years in Maine and still visits regularly.

The exhibit originated in New York this summer, and resulted from many of the artists’ contacting Meridian following the attacks, seeking a voice to express their feelings, said Claudine Hughes, a Meridian spokeswoman.

In all, the show features the work of 68 American artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Sally Mann and Richard Estes.

Wyeth’s offering for the show, “Study for September 11,” was commissioned for the cover of the New York Observer and shows the rescue work at ground zero. Kinstler’s “Reflections” features a young woman posed in the doorway before the Maine coastline.

Clark is represented with a view of Gramercy Park, made shortly after the attacks. And Barnet contributed “Waiting” from his series “Women of the Sea,” which he painted as a symbol of the heroic nature of the country.

The exhibit will go from Istanbul to Ankara, Turkey, before coming to the Untied States for an opening in Atlanta. It goes back overseas in 2003 for showings in Cairo and Berlin.