WYETH

I love art, especially painting and sculpture. I enjoy almost all of it, though I tend to like realist painters and sculpters the most, and one of the greatest American realists died this weekend. He was one of my favorites. I will mourn the passing of Andrew Wyeth, but what a collection he left behind. Art critics may squabble, but I think he will be remembered as one of this country's greatest.

Some say his work was drab and boring, and I can understand their criticisms. I doubt anyone ever used browns the way he did, though, to show the world he came from. He was great at showing the wear on people's faces. His best-known painting, Christina's World, wonderfully captures just about everything one needs to know about his style (if you were allowed only one painting in which to judge a master's style). For me, the picture just brings a smile to my face, as I wonder about how this woman felt as she looks over the wide expanse (with homestead). You see her from behind, but you get the sense that she has mixed emotions---a love and feeling of comfort, but a sense of longing too, perhaps.

But Wyeth painting hundreds. How can one not love the delicate window drapes fluttering in the breeze in Wind From the Sea? Or not want to cuddle with the white dog laying on a white bedspread in Master Bedroom? And all those Helga portraits. . .scandalous and beautiful. His landscapes flow---they aren't jagged or majestic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnj_MBfSZKs