Goodbye, Andrew Wyeth
America’s greatest living artist, Andrew Wyeth, has passed away in his sleep at the ripe old age of 91 and was reportedly still painting regularly. He proved that the saying, “Only the good die young” is fulla crap. He was especailly beloved in the Philadelphia area, because he was a native son. According to the regulars at Hank’s Place, the diner the Wyeths love, Andrew Wyeth often has pork and sauerkraut every week. Pork and sauerkraut! And he lived to 91!
I burst out into tears when Mom broke the news to me. I guess I cried because I was being selfish. I was hoping there’d be a lot more paintings yet to see or that maybe I could meet him one day — not that I would ever know what to say to him.
His son Jamie may inhert the crown of America’s greatest lving artist, but knowing Jamie, he’ll probably refuse it. Jamie’s works tend to feature animals, which makes him not so well liked among art critics. Both Andrew and Jamie’s works are featured in one of my favorite museums, the Brandywine River Museum.
In case you don’t know who I’m talking about, Andrew Wyeth’s best known painting is called “Christina’s World”. Here’s a silent animation of the internationally renouned painting. I remember being haunted by this painting as a kid, wondering if the girl’s legs were broken and someone had made off with her crutches:
I was going to include an interview with Wyeth, but his work spoke more than he ever did. Here’s a slide show of his paintings set to music done very tastefully to help you get more familiar with Wyeth’s body of work:
Goodbye, Mr. Wyeth.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
[...] like Michelangelo to those I’d never heard of like Jean Arp. My personal tastes run more to Andrew Wyeth and his son Jamie Wyeth (who didn’t make the list, darnit), but I can appreciate the more abstract and primative [...]