I remember thinking his work was slick. But I really appreciated his deft handling of water color when I saw his work in Maine more recently. And I respect the hours he will have spent learning his trade.
"Slick" – another disparaging qualifier from the Modernist age. I do know what you mean though and I also tend to be turned off by things that feel too polished, hence the Macintosh quote embedded in my Wyeth remembrance. I felt that way about him for so long, but, like you, I saw a show in Maine (at the Farnsworth museum in Rockland) that featured all the Wyeths together and it made me feel more forgiving of Andy's polish. There's certainly nothing polished about that Arthur Cleveland portrait; it feels like he whittled it out of a hickory board!
I will posit as a philistine troglodyte that Andrew W came from the lineage of illustrator and that the moderns could not abide that.
Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, and Andrew's pater, N.C., were very-very skilled artists, but oooh so Commercial; (Max selling jello; dats icky.)
although i suspect they might have been irked that they were not seen as 'Fine' they got where their bread was buttered. By a time the world of illustration had gone to pasture and the skills had been denigrated but Andrew made his nut with the skills of his heritage.
I too believed in that illustrator lineage as Andy's downfall, but I started to reframe my idea of AW when it became clear that NC quit illustrating to try to gain merit as an artist. Who did he emulate? His son AW, poorly. NC spent the remainder of his days chasing the accomplisments of his son, the artist. NC could never escape illustrating a scene. For Andy, the scene was merely to jumping point.
That is cool too! Like old school blacksmith forge knife maker? Is there any other kind of knife maker? Benjamin really only uses his IG at this point. He is just getting going. @benjaminallenfurniture
Wow, he's doing beautiful work! I worked for various builders between my teens and college and apprenticed in a shop full of cabinetmakers in Brooklyn in my twenties. I Ran my own business doing kitchens, libraries and whatnot into about my mid 30s. But now I just do it for friends and for us – lots of renovations on our own houses over the years. But your boy is making a far more refined kind of work than I ever did. I'm just a functional carpenter. He's very impressive. Looks like he's spent some time with Tage Frid's book. Our son Will doesn't do forging. It's all design, engineering and metal removal for him. He makes Balisongs (butterfly knives). Also on IG, like all the cool kids these days! @bensonblades
I can't say that I was all that familiar with Balisongs, but WOW, those are impressive!! Tage Frid is definitely on Benjamin's radar. He is pretty much self taught. I too have dabbled in various woodworking ventures, but nothing like what he is capable of. When he first started I thought I would teach him, but then he just took off on his own. We share a space in our basement, half workshop, half studio. I am continually amazed by what he is capable of with seeming ease.
It is funny that a Wyeth you remember is one that I am not familiar with (which I must say is an achiemment). It is so good to get aquainted with it! There are truly so many angles to approach why he was/is such a pariah, but I think a good start is that he consistently hit so close to home as you describe in your grandmothers print. While it is often a provincial scene it always digs deeper into what means to be human and that can be uncomfortable. He achieved what most of us artists only hope to achieve, an absolute surrender to artist within. He approached all of his subjects with curiosity, not intention, and the marks, colors, shaped just flowed from him; good or bad. I find it interesting that exhbitions that focus too heavily on the temperas often fall short for me because they seem to lack that spontaneosly reaction in their polish, but the exhibitions that include the full breadth of his work floor me because then it is all spontaneous reaction to living.
Seeing all those Wyeths together at the Farnsworth is what turned me around and opened me up to Andy more. I think we all need to talk more about the importance of actually looking at physical paintings "in the flesh". We've become too enmeshed in the digital world. Everything I know about painting, I know in equal parts from looking at real ones in the museum, in galleries or at peoples houses – then going back to the studio and trying to make them. It's a two-step dance.
have a memory (late '70s maybe) the washington post was just laying into A.Wyeth like he was a moral monster 'bout his helga sketches. hooboy was dey enflamed. do not know where the vitriol was coming from but it was HOT.
Yeah, I remember how much some people hated those Helga pictures. Hating Wyeth was a sport for quite a while. It's funny because when he first appeared on the scene he got some good reviews in NYC, then everything turned sour.
I remember thinking his work was slick. But I really appreciated his deft handling of water color when I saw his work in Maine more recently. And I respect the hours he will have spent learning his trade.
"Slick" – another disparaging qualifier from the Modernist age. I do know what you mean though and I also tend to be turned off by things that feel too polished, hence the Macintosh quote embedded in my Wyeth remembrance. I felt that way about him for so long, but, like you, I saw a show in Maine (at the Farnsworth museum in Rockland) that featured all the Wyeths together and it made me feel more forgiving of Andy's polish. There's certainly nothing polished about that Arthur Cleveland portrait; it feels like he whittled it out of a hickory board!
I will posit as a philistine troglodyte that Andrew W came from the lineage of illustrator and that the moderns could not abide that.
Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, and Andrew's pater, N.C., were very-very skilled artists, but oooh so Commercial; (Max selling jello; dats icky.)
although i suspect they might have been irked that they were not seen as 'Fine' they got where their bread was buttered. By a time the world of illustration had gone to pasture and the skills had been denigrated but Andrew made his nut with the skills of his heritage.
I too believed in that illustrator lineage as Andy's downfall, but I started to reframe my idea of AW when it became clear that NC quit illustrating to try to gain merit as an artist. Who did he emulate? His son AW, poorly. NC spent the remainder of his days chasing the accomplisments of his son, the artist. NC could never escape illustrating a scene. For Andy, the scene was merely to jumping point.
That is a great MacIntosh quote too! My son is a furniture maker and we refer to MacIntosh on occasion.
Very cool. My oldest boy is a knife maker. Does your son have his work online?
That is cool too! Like old school blacksmith forge knife maker? Is there any other kind of knife maker? Benjamin really only uses his IG at this point. He is just getting going. @benjaminallenfurniture
Wow, he's doing beautiful work! I worked for various builders between my teens and college and apprenticed in a shop full of cabinetmakers in Brooklyn in my twenties. I Ran my own business doing kitchens, libraries and whatnot into about my mid 30s. But now I just do it for friends and for us – lots of renovations on our own houses over the years. But your boy is making a far more refined kind of work than I ever did. I'm just a functional carpenter. He's very impressive. Looks like he's spent some time with Tage Frid's book. Our son Will doesn't do forging. It's all design, engineering and metal removal for him. He makes Balisongs (butterfly knives). Also on IG, like all the cool kids these days! @bensonblades
I can't say that I was all that familiar with Balisongs, but WOW, those are impressive!! Tage Frid is definitely on Benjamin's radar. He is pretty much self taught. I too have dabbled in various woodworking ventures, but nothing like what he is capable of. When he first started I thought I would teach him, but then he just took off on his own. We share a space in our basement, half workshop, half studio. I am continually amazed by what he is capable of with seeming ease.
Isn't it gratifying when our kids know how to make stuff?
Absolutely!
It is funny that a Wyeth you remember is one that I am not familiar with (which I must say is an achiemment). It is so good to get aquainted with it! There are truly so many angles to approach why he was/is such a pariah, but I think a good start is that he consistently hit so close to home as you describe in your grandmothers print. While it is often a provincial scene it always digs deeper into what means to be human and that can be uncomfortable. He achieved what most of us artists only hope to achieve, an absolute surrender to artist within. He approached all of his subjects with curiosity, not intention, and the marks, colors, shaped just flowed from him; good or bad. I find it interesting that exhbitions that focus too heavily on the temperas often fall short for me because they seem to lack that spontaneosly reaction in their polish, but the exhibitions that include the full breadth of his work floor me because then it is all spontaneous reaction to living.
Seeing all those Wyeths together at the Farnsworth is what turned me around and opened me up to Andy more. I think we all need to talk more about the importance of actually looking at physical paintings "in the flesh". We've become too enmeshed in the digital world. Everything I know about painting, I know in equal parts from looking at real ones in the museum, in galleries or at peoples houses – then going back to the studio and trying to make them. It's a two-step dance.
I wholeheartedly agree!
have a memory (late '70s maybe) the washington post was just laying into A.Wyeth like he was a moral monster 'bout his helga sketches. hooboy was dey enflamed. do not know where the vitriol was coming from but it was HOT.
Yeah, I remember how much some people hated those Helga pictures. Hating Wyeth was a sport for quite a while. It's funny because when he first appeared on the scene he got some good reviews in NYC, then everything turned sour.