The LuLac Edition #3622, October 23rd, 2017

ANDREW WYETH @ 100

Andrew Wyeth (Photo: Wyeth archives)

"Christina's World" (1948)

"Maga's Daughter" (1966) 

"Battle Ensign" (1987)

As part of our Centennial celebration of famous individuals, we take a look at artist Andrew Wyeth who was born on July 12th, 1917 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvanian.
In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Wyeth often noted: "I paint my life." One of the best-known images in 20th-century American art is his painting Christina's World, currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This tempera was painted in 1948, when Wyeth was 31 years old.
Wyeth's art has long been controversial. He developed technically beautiful works, had a large following and developed a considerable fortune as a result. Yet there have been conflicting views by critics, curators and historians about the importance of his work. Art historian Robert Rosenblum was asked in 1977 to identify the "most overrated and underrated" artists of the 20th century. He provided one name for both categories: Andrew Wyeth.
Admirers of Wyeth's art believe that his paintings, in addition to their pictorial formal beauty, contain strong emotional currents, symbolic content, and underlying abstraction. Most observers of his art agree that he is skilled at handling the medium of egg tempera (which uses egg yolk as its medium) and watercolor. Wyeth avoided using traditional oil paints. His use of light and shadow lets the subjects illuminate the canvas. His paintings and titles suggest sound, as is implied in many paintings, including Distant Thunder (1961) and Spring Fed (1967). Christina's World became an iconic image, a status unmet to even the best paintings, "that registers as an emotional and cultural reference point in the minds of millions."
Wyeth created work in sharp contrast to abstraction, which gained currency in American art and critical thinking in the middle of the 20th century.
Museum exhibitions of Wyeth's paintings have set attendance records, but many art critics have evaluated his work less favorably. Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The Village Voice, derided his paintings as "Formulaic stuff, not very effective even as illustrational 'realism'." Some found Wyeth's art of rural subject matter tired and oversweet.
N.C. advised Wyeth to work from one's own perspective and imagination; to work for "effect" means the artist is not fully exploring their artistic abilities and, as a result, the artist will not realize their potential.
He worked predominantly in a regionalist style. In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine.
Dividing his time between Pennsylvania and Maine, Wyeth maintained a realist painting style for over seventy years. He gravitated to several identifiable landscape subjects and models. His solitary walks were the primary means of inspiration for his landscapes. He developed an extraordinary intimacy with the land and sea and strove for a spiritual understanding based on history and unspoken emotion. He typically created dozens of studies on a subject in pencil or loosely brushed watercolor before executing a finished painting, either in watercolor, drybrush (a watercolor style in which the water is squeezed from the brush), or egg tempera.
Wyeth’s Chadds Ford studio was given to the Brandywine River Museum of Art by the artist’s wife, Betsy James Wyeth, the studio provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience this very personal space.
This studio served as the artist’s principal Pennsylvania workplace from 1940 to 2008. Thousands of paintings and drawings were created there, inspired by the people, architecture and landscapes of Chadds Ford. The studio still houses the furnishings, library and collections acquired by the artist, as well as examples of the art materials he used throughout his career.
The Andrew Wyeth Studio is a National Historic Landmark and a member site of the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Guided tours of the Andrew Wyeth Studio introduce visitors to all aspects of his career, enhancing the museum’s gallery experience. Tours depart from the Museum via shuttle on the schedule listed below.
There is still time to take a tour. Tours take place through November 19, 2017, and last approximately one hour. Children under age six are not permitted on the tours. It’s 8 bucks for others.
Here’s the link http://www.brandywine.org/museum/studios/nc-wyeth-house-studio
Here’s the link for events.
http://www.brandywine.org/museum/events
Wyeth died in January of 2009 at the age of 91.
Here is a conversation with the artist before he died. (Source: wikipedia, LuLac, Brandywine museum)