Les Artistes

ANDREW WYETH

Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. Several galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Art, display his work when prior to this they had never featured the work of a living artist.

Christina’s World

Andrew Wyeth’s ability to create unmistakably realistic images set to a fictional tone both impressed and enraged critics. During his sixty-year career, his work gradually began an evolution from realism to surrealistic expressionism to a combination of both. This is the primary reason for the feelings of rage held by these critics. They felt if he were to be taken seriously as an artist and build a career based on merit, he should not be working in such a light medium.

Black Velvet

This “painter of the people,” as he was often referred to as, holds no high school diploma, formal training or college degree. Until he was eighteen years of age, Wyeth’s father Newell (otherwise known as N. C. Wyeth) homeschooled him and trained him in the arts. His parents, based in part on his frail health, made this decision about his education. When he was very young, he contracted whooping cough and was prone to illnesses thereafter. Rather than continuing to deal with schools any longer, he attended until the third grade; it was thought best his father taught him at home.

Turkey Pond

Museums and galleries over the years held Andrew Wyeth’s work in the highest regard and still continue to do so today. The Farnsworth museum located in Rockland, Maine once paid 65,000.00 for a painting entitled “Her Room,” in 1964. At the time, this was the highest price paid by a gallery for a living artist’s work. During 1987, the National Gallery of Art exhibited the “Helga” paintings. As mentioned before, this was the first time they featured the work of a living artist.

Afternoon Flight

Fence Line

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