Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Drawing
Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic Details
From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In this post-post-modern era—when no single artistic movement can pretend to claim dominance, and the "shock of the new" has pretty much worn off—the American realist tradition is starting to look better and better, and no living artist encapsulates that tradition more definitively than Andrew Wyeth. With the overhyped (Time and Newsweek covers!) late '70s controversy over the Helga paintings pretty much forgotten, now is a good time for the kind of serious reassessment facilitated by this lavish retrospective. Its different essays—of uniformly high quality—emphasize various aspects of Wyeth's oeuvre. Taylor explores the early work's surprising connections to surrealism, for example, while Knutson's movingly personal essay investigates the artist's lesser-known depictions of everyday objects, and Crosman outlines the pivotal role of the artist's wife, Betsy. Together, the essays place Wyeth within a number of overlapping contexts while honoring the singular path that this American master walks. (Entering his 90s, Wyeth is still very much a going concern and the book reproduces a number of his recent paintings.) The illustrations, which include works by artists who have influenced Wyeth, advance these arguments while making for a gorgeous book. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more About the Author Anne Knutson is guest curator for the exhibition Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic. Kathleen A. Foster is the Robert L. McNeill, Jr. Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Michael R. Taylor is Associate Curator and Acting Head of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Christopher Crosman is Director of the William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.John Wilmerding is the Christopher B. Sarofim Professor of American Art at Princeton University. Read more
Reviews
I have always loved the work of Andrew Wyeth and have more than a few books. The color representation is beautiful, the plates are beautiful. But what really was unexpectated was the way this book is set up. It has given me more of a running narrative about his painting throughout his life - how one painting prompts the next one. Also, his process of working out the stories in sketch after sketch puts the reader in the drivers seat and for small moments you become him. That particularly becomes apparent in the drawings of the dog over and over for his work "Groung Hog Day". You feel his story trying to be released and then does in the final painting. I'm not sure I've ever seen a painting process described so well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who not only loves Wyeth's work, but also art in general. Kudos to the author's and editors for doing that kind of research and presenting it in such a straight forward way.
