The Man Best Known For - Gone

You are probably very familiar with these images:

Andrew Wyeth has been one of my favorite artists since I was very young. Not for Christina's World, but for the Helga pictures. I still remember the day that I found this book in a used book store waiting for my dad as he rummaged through piles of disorganized books. I found this book and I took it to the reading corner and just started flipping the pages. I was amazed. I was in a trance staring at the images. Captivated by the emotion and power, yet stillness in these pieces. Needless to say, I bought the book.

Then I went on a quest to see the images in real life. I wanted to look at the canvas eye-to-brushstroke. I created a list of museums and galleries that I could see his work and when we were on family vacations or visiting schools or on a business trip and if I knew I had an opportunity - I would take it.

Later in reading A Secret Life: Andrew Wyeth, I learned that as he was finishing the previous painting Helga was talking to him about a particularly uncomfortable experience in her life in response Wyeth says "the picture seemed too pretty...I'd painted these braids beautifully coming to the fine end, the fluffy blondness of the hair. I thought, Fuck it. This is not it. It was like making a banner that was too big. It gets to be a caricature of a caricature." As such, Wyeth chopped off the bottom of the panel to sever the ends of her braided hair.

Here are a few images from the Helga series:

(I apologize if nudity offends you...if so, then you can go somewhere else...)

The following are my 2 favorite pieces and the reason why I could not leave that book behind in the bookstore:

Imagine my delight when I learned that Wyeth himself felt that Barracoon was his finest nude. Here he hid Helga inside black skin and hung the image in his studio and enjoyed asking visitors about the painting, relishing the deception.

Wyeth considered Barracoon "way beyond a nude - something almost streamlined, like a figurehead on a clipper ship. I was trying to achieve something dateless. This could be any period - Egyptian, the Renaissance."

I agree.

Andrew Wyeth

1917-2009