I'm very sad about Andrew Wyeth's death this week. He was one of the first artists I learned about in school, and I have always been inspired by his work.
The linked article (in the NY Times) is good, but in all the press coverage, there has been an over-accentuation of the criticism of critics. I know from experience that Wyeth had a huge influence through young students of art across the country. The family connections through his father, N. C. Wyeth and son Jamie are a compelling story. More important, his realistic style, regional focus and work in tempera make him a very good example for student artists. I believe I first encounted Wyeth's work right after the sale of the Helga paintings made news -- enough to take an artist who was "thororughly respectable" for students and give him that little bit of edge!
I happened to have been reading Wyeth's own remembrance of his father's death this week. After that, it was very spooky for me to hear that Andrew himself had died. I want to pull this quote:
In many of his paintings, the faces have a relaxed, almost deathlike quality that is extraordinary. I once asked about this. Pa said, "Andy, I'll tell you." And he drove his point right home to me: "When my mother died, I took the train right to Needham. I got there in the late afternoon and they had her laid in her bed upstairs. I went up and sat there with her, with that amazing face that looked like the mother of Europe. As the sun went down, studying that face lying there on that white pillow and that waxy skin"—he was almost whispering—"it made such a deep impression on me. Andy, if you ever have a chance to be with someone you have loved, don't hesitate to do it, because that's the most profound quality, a head in death. It changed everything for me."
Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009.
