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January 18, 2009
RIP, Andrew Wyeth
One of my favorite painters died this past week. Andrew Wyeth, 91, died in Chadds Ford, PA on Friday, January 16. Oddly, not much news was made of Wyeth's passing--the wires are too busy with the imminent inauguration and with the "miraculous landing" of the airplane into the Hudson--which I find sorta sad. Below: a couple of photos of Wyeth from the mid-40s, not long after he married and had children, and around the time his work began maturing.
To see a Wyeth work in a museum, to come face to face with his gorgeously lonely, pinpoint-detailed American realism paintings, is a total joy. Although his subject was usually rural Pennsylvania, his pieces remind me of the land in central Kansas where I grew up, especially the world of my grandparents' farm. In tribute, I wholeheartedly recommend everyone seeking out one of his paintings this week-- many exist in many, many museums around the US.
Christina's World (above, in NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art) is probably his most famous. Below are a few more I love: Public Sale; Winter, 1946; and Crown of Flowers, 1974 (from his controversial "Helga" series).
Posted by scottheim at January 18, 2009 02:00 AM
Comments
THE NEW YORK TIMES obituary and accompanying thinkpiece kept stressing that Wyeth was somehow controversial because other artists and many critics called him a panderer to popular taste. I think this is one case in which criticism had absolutely no influence on the views of serious art lovers.
Posted by: fred ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://heim.etherweave.com/weblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 20, 2009 06:09 PM
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