Yes, he did extraordinary work. I love the way he captured the effects of light and shadow. His paintings almost look like photography. Very realistic, yet, mysterious in a sense. What a talent.
He will be missed by many.
Check out the Brandywine Museam in Chadds Ford, PA sometime for a nice collection of Wyeth’s work, and that of his disciples.
Guilty. But wow almost looks like photo.
I don’t believe I’ve heard of him before. :/
RIP.
Some foppish art critic said Wyeth was more an illustrator than artist. That reinforced the homily that those who can’t; teach and those who can’t teach become critics if they’re connected enough. Wyeths works, in their case, truly are pearls cast before tasteless swine.
Illustration is contracted visual mediums. If the illustrator is very good at his or her craft it is art. Wyeth’s critic was being an ass on several levels by implying that
1.an artist is superior to an illustrator by the grace of higher income,
2.the work of illustrators shouldn’t be considered art,
3.superrealism detracts from a work’s worth, and
4.Andrews father, J.C., was somehow inferior because he had to produce mostly commercial works to provide for his family.
Many illustrators (by their own self-definition) were great artists while rarely acknowledging it. I submit Norman Rockwell, Toulouse-Lautrec, Charles Gibson and Aubrey Beardsley as artists who cranked out their best works under contract more often than not.
The snob factor and outright idiocy prevailing in the art world struck me so cold that I laid down the paints and clay. When I saw a common vacuum cleaner in a plexiglass box selling for $25,000 I knew the inmates were running that asylum.
I’m going to take another shot at it.