LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Wyeth: Andrew Wyeth
built 660 days ago
Wyeth has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees. In 1963, Andrew Wyeth became the first painter to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was conferred by President John F. Kennedy. In 1977, he became the first American artist since John Singer Sargent elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1980, Wyeth became the first living American artist to be elected to Britain's Royal Academy. In 1987 Wyeth received a D.F.A. from Bates College.
Source:
Andrew Wyeth, born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, is the son of the talented illustrator N. C. Wyeth. Fragile as a child, young Wyeth received his art training from his father, who taught him the precision of line and accuracy of drawing that make his work technically excellent. His color is always subdued-often subtly monochromatic. His earliest work, done in 1929 when he was twelve, is pen and ink, precise and delicate in line, elegant in style in the best tradition of illustration. Wyeth then turned to the use of pencil and colored washes, then to watercolor drawings. At the age of sixteen, influenced by Winslow Homer, he was creating bold impressions of light, tone, and movement.
Source:
Andrews declares, "Wyeth has the finest touch of the brush of any living artist today," and he may well be right. Wyeth's compositions are unfailingly well balanced, his draughtsmanship utterly superb, his modelling accurate and convincing, and the colors veritably true to life.
Source:
A particularly controversial episode in Wyeth's career surrounded a body of work Wyeth painted of Helga Testorf, a model he met through the Kuerner family in Chadds Ford. Wyeth began painting Helga in 1971 and for nearly fifteen years she was one of Wyeth's most important models. Unlike his other subjects... Wyeth kept the vast majority of his Helga works a secret from everyone, including his wife Betsy. He revealed the Helga pictures to Betsy in 1985, and arranged a sale of the paintings to Leonard Andrews, a private investor, the following year. Andrews arranged a publicity blitz that attracted major museums to exhibit the artwork. Enticed by the suggestion of a secret love affair between Wyeth and Helga, national news media featured the story of Wyeth's secret cache of art.
Source:
After painting in oils for many years, Wyeth turned to the egg tempera medium and ... began to paint more for exhibitions. He encouraged an interest in the arts in his children, giving them every opportunity for self expression. His daughters Henriette and Caroline, are both accomplished painters; Ann, a composer, and his son, Andrew, is a famous painter. His grandson, Jamie, is also an excellent painter in his own right. The October, 1965, issue of American Heritage contains an excellent article by Henry C. Pitz about the career of Wyeth and his family.
Source:
Much of Andrew Wyeth's art is inspired by life in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. An American realist painter, his Master Bedroom, c. 1965, is originally a watercolor that tells a story through lyrical images made richly poignant by Wyeth's deep emotional connection to rural America. Dog lovers will be heartened by who is keeping the bed warm while his master is away. Generally depicted in watercolor and tempera, his art conveys a brilliant delicacy with gem-like quality. Often called the "people's artist," Wyeth is best known for "Christina's World"—perhaps one of the most famous American paintings.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Andrew Wyeth