Andy Wyeth is America's Greatest Artist

After reading obituaries such as this and this on the occasion of Mr. Wyeth's passing, 17 Jan 2009 at age 91, I thought it only right to set down my defense of his artistic integrity, which hardly needs any defense in light of his near-universal popularity here in the heart of Wyeth country in Chester County, some 35 miles west of Philadelphia. Small wonder, this, as living in Chester County is, at least in February and March, in particular, the near equivalent of living within a Wyeth painting, so accurately did he depict the light and texture of the place. If this means that that we, the natives of Wyeth Country, are the hardscrabble rural unfortunates the dour obituary writers say Wyeth populated his world with then so be it: I can imagine worse company to keep.

Years ago, between the shooting and publication of Life Magazine's famous story on Wyeth, as it turned out, I talked to Andrew Wyeth, expressing my interest in marking a film documentary about him. I had dallied about how to contact him with my nebulous ideas, and had hoped for an introduction through Lucius Crowell, also a realist artist (and deserving a much wider audience). Lucius, a friend of my parents, said to just call Andy, as he called him, to explain what I had in mind.

With some trepidation, I did. Wyeth was friendly, as I explained that Lucius had said to call him, and I briefly pitched my idea of a film portrait of him at work, uniting him with the landscapes that I myself loved so much. He was gracious, but demurred, saying that he was a rather private person and that Life was coming out with a big story shortly, and that this would be enough exposure for the moment. I thanked him and said goodbye.

Some years later I heard that a relative, a nephew named Denny McGowan, I believe, was working on a documentary about the Wyeth clan, which, if this was the same project as the show shown on PBS (in the 1980s?), it turned out to be not dissimilar from what I had in mind.

So, what might have been a career-forming experience turned out instead to be just an obscure footnote. However, Wyeth's willingness to hear me out added substance to my admiration of his art, which is nothing if not honset and sincere.

From the second obit, in the New York Times, comes the following quote of Wyeth: "I put a lot of things into my work which are very personal to me. So how can the public feel these things? I think most people get to my work through the back door. They’re attracted by the realism and they sense the emotion and the abstraction — and eventually, I hope, they get their own powerful emotion."