so i know im not breaking any news here but it came to my attention this morning [after i spent a few hours bullshitting around on the net and answering questions aboutspider-man #583...again] that one of my favorite american painters died in his sleep last night...
Andrew Wyeth, son of Treasure Island Illustrator N.C. Wyeth [amongst the other sweet things he painted the treasure island images are my favorite...Blind Pew is amazing ] died in his sleep at the age of 91. i wont do the reporting so if you wanna read the article click here
everything ive read today about his death always references his painting Christina's World...which, yea, is a nice piece and super famous. i love how people always talk about it as some romantic idea of a girl lost in her imagination, dorothy-esque, kinda thing and then always have to talk about [like me right now] how she was just horribly disabled and had probably even peed herself in this picture as she was trying to drag herself home etc...but that painting is just alright... i tend like so many of his other pieces waaaay better anyway. ive included his portrait of Dr. Syn [if you know nothing of the character read the wiki] who i actually fell in love with, both in story and in painting because of my father. I actually have to blame my father for introducing me to Wyeth probably when i was in 3rd or 4th grade too. He had worked with the Brandywine Conservancy and Art Museum doing their insurance stuff...and thus was involved with a bunch of things Wyeth...all in my mind much more romanticized as well.
i was very happy to go to the Wyeth Retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art not too many years ago...i cannot remember when that was [these last 4 years are a blur i a lot of ways...and not even from the drinking...heh...just changes] but i do remember the close to 4 hours i spent looking at his art and how amazing it all was. such attention to craft. awesome brush strokes. the fact that he painted things as he wanted sometimes...ie removing windows on the farmhouse and such...so sweet. the fact that one sweet piece with buzzards flying over a field was lost to time for a while cause he flipped the board over and set up his sons toy train set on the reverse just blew my mind. And finally seeing Dr Syn in real life was amazing. my friend sam said today that he lived "a full life" and this is very very true. 91 is a long time to be kickin around here in south eastern pa [heh] and to be able to paint such sweet paintings that actually have been appreciated in his own lifetime seems to me to be a great accomplishment in and of itself.
if you didnt make it to the show @ the PMA try to see his pieces whenever and wherever you can. i recommend them highly. today is a sad day for my little art world.
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