Andrew Wyeth
1917–2009

Andrew Wyeth established himself as a master of realism amid the ascendancy of abstraction during the 1940s, remaining faithful to his meticulous depictions of rural America for more than sixty years. His subjects were the immediate surroundings of his modest life—family, friends, and, above all, the landscapes of his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his summer retreat in Cushing, Maine. Winter Fields, an early canvas painted before Wyeth began to incorporate figures into his work, portrays a crow lying lifeless in a desiccated field. The only signs of life are two houses visible on the horizon in the far distance. Completed at the height of World War II, this somber, bleak scene may have been intended to evoke the casualties occurring in the battlefields of Europe or to reference the Revolutionary War dead of the Brandywine battlefield adjacent to the farm.

To bolster the authenticity of the imagery, Wyeth made two sketches prior to painting Winter Field: one of the dead crow, which he found near his Chadds Ford studio, and another of the spindly clump of grass at the lower left. Yet despite the composition’s extraordinary detail, it subtly distorts reality. The rendering of the bird and foreground grasses is so painstaking as to seem exaggerated, creating a compression of the pictorial space toward the canvas surface. This effect is underscored by the equally sharp focus of the elements in the far distance, which defies visual logic and engenders an uncanny feeling not entirely out of step with contemporaneous Surrealist works, despite the artist’s desire to distance himself from such practices.

Introduction

Andrew Newell Wyeth ( WY-eth; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He believed he was also an abstractionist, portraying subjects in a new, meaningful way. The son of N. C. Wyeth and father of Jamie Wyeth, he was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. James H. Duff explores the art and lives of the three men in An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art. Raised with an appreciation of nature, Wyeth took walks that fired his imagination. Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost, and King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925) inspired him intellectually and artistically. Wyeth featured in a documentary The Metaphor in which he discussed Vidor's influence on the creation of his works of art, like Winter 1946 and Portrait of Ralph Kline. Wyeth was also inspired by Winslow Homer and Renaissance artists.

His father, N. C., gave him art lessons as a child, during which he developed the skills to create landscapes, illustrations, works of figures, and watercolor paintings. He also instilled a sense of passion and purpose in creating art that "enriches and broadens one's perspective." His brother-in-law, Peter Hurd, taught him to use egg tempera. Wyeth's wife, Betsy, managed his career and was also a strong influence in his work.

One of the best-known images in 20th-century American art is his tempera painting Christina's World, currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which was painted in 1948, when Wyeth was 31 years old. Wyeth is also known for The Helga Pictures.

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. Also appearing in his works are his friend's Kuerner Farm and an 18th-century mill, Brinton's Mill, that Wyeth and his wife purchased. He made a collection of about 300 paintings of windows which were presented in the National Gallery of Art's 2014 exhibition, "Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In". In the 1960s, he began to paint portraits of family members, friends, and neighbors. Wyeth often said: "I paint my life."

Summarizing the variation of opinions about his work, art historian Robert Rosenblum said that Wyeth was the "most overrated and underrated" artist. He was known for his skill at creating watercolor and tempera paintings that engage one's senses and emotions. Christina's World became an iconic image, a status unmet by even the best paintings, "that registers as an emotional and cultural reference point in the minds of millions." Among the awards and honors that he received since 1947 are the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medals and he was elected to Britain's Royal Academy.

Wikidata identifier

Q316325

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed December 5, 2024.

Introduction

Wyeth was trained by his father, Newell Convers Wyeth, a successful illustrator. Although offerred jobs as an illustrator, Andrew chose to pursue painting with tempera and watercolor. His introspective paintings of rural life were popular with the American public, although less respected by critics. American artist.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, owner, painter

ULAN identifier

500001266

Names

Andrew Wyeth, Andrew Newell Wyeth, Ėndri︠u︡ Uaĭet, Andoryū Waiesu, Ssu Wei, Wei-ssu, Weisi, Andrew Wyerh, Эндрю Уайет, アンドリューワイエス

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed December 5, 2024.