Andrew Wyeth- Artist or Illustrator?/ Realist painters as artists.

I would certainly call him an artist. His landscapes remind me of luc Tuyman's concentration camp paintings.
I'm not that familiar with a lot of Wyeth's work as my study for uni was focused more on surrealism and contemporary art but Christina's world is an important piece of art. There's so many different messages in that piece. You have frustration, loneliness, feeling outcast from society....
There is quite a profund sense of sadness in his work imo as well.
The critics seemed to dislike him as they found his work quite boring, no movement or energy, they're all quite stagnant. If you look at say Freud and the energy in his portraits you can see why one might say that. He was also painting at a time when the art world was changing and moving on from the way he worked.

I really don't think there needs to be a sharp division between an "artist" and an "illustrator." It's one of those things that annoys me, actually.

I understand that an illustrator is classed as a commercial artist - a fine artist tries to avoid painting a picture that looks chocolate boxy, whereas a commercial artist may paint a picture that's intended to go on a chocolate box.

But when you think about it, Michelangelo and Leonardo were commercial artists too. They had clients, commissions, deadlines, etc. In Michelangelo's case his art director was the pope. It was Patrick Woodroffe's opinion that the best artists were illustrators anyway.

Regarding Andrew Wyeth, I would happily label him an artist, if it were necessary to apply labels.

Greg-233,

I am not one to pigeon-hole great illustrators as not capable of 'Great Art'. To describe Wyeth's effect upon me, I had to draw a dividing line somewhere.

There is an absolute 'Photographic' appearance to a large portion of Wyeth's work that tends to give it an artificial machine-like aura to me? But on the other-hand it does resonate with his own signature style that is quite unmistakable.

So my conflict continues? Where should I rank him? Maybe Wyeth's Art is straddling the boundaries and that might of been his intent after-all? (as a Realist pushing at the edges of depiction).

One of the definitions of 'Great Art' should be that it provokes something in you, and I am definitely provoked by the majority of his major works- thanks for reminding me of that laurendorward-990-190608 :)

It would be hard to just walk by Wyeth's work and simply ignore him without drawing something out of you.

If we then consider everything that provokes as 'Art' then that is still not enough to sustain a work through the ages.

Always great to hear others opinions on Art.

have you heard of the novel marianne's dreams? his depiction of rural architecture really reminds me of the descriptions in that book.

The book does have an interesting plot,

Marianne is a young girl who is bedridden with a long-term illness. She draws a picture to fill her time, and finds that she spends her dreams within the picture she has drawn. As time goes by, she becomes sicker, and starts to spend more and more time trapped within her fantasy world, and her attempts to make things better by adding to and crossing out things in the drawing make things progressively worse. Her only companion in her dreamworld is a boy called Mark, who is also a long-term invalid in the real world.

I've never studied the Japanese. That's something that must have crept in there. But the Japanese are my biggest clients. They seem to like the elemental quality. (Andrew Wyeth)

I get letters from people about my work. The thing that pleases me most is that my work touches their feelings. In fact, they don't talk about the paintings. They end up telling me the story of their life or how their father died. (Andrew Wyeth)

It's all in how you arrange the thing... the careful balance of the design is the motion. (Andrew Wyeth)


This quote describes what I like most about his work, that intuitive sense of Balance that I find in his work the masterful use of space that gives them a profound sense of dimensionality, no wonder the Japanese are his biggest
collectors.

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work; to leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling. (Andrew Wyeth)

This is where I always become caught up on Wyeth's work as I don't think he quite succeeded here.

Yeah, the last quote I somewhat agree with you about. The technical is observed quite strongly in a lot of the work.
Is that a bit of a dig at the end on impressionism? lol

What's this? you want to dig up Gauguin and ask his skeleton for one more painting?-LOL (oh you already have...how did it turn out ;)

(seriously you could overlay a photograph of the building onto Wyeth's own drawing and it would probable match perfectly, I'd call that a little on the technical side).

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work; to leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling. (Andrew Wyeth)

I'm personally not a fan of Wyeth (although I've had at least one tutor who was an absolute devotee of his work) and in all honesty I find his work to be the absolute opposite of what he claims above, it seems entirely composed of 'technical mannerisms' either dictated by the medium when he works in tempera or imposed on it when he works in 'drybrush' watercolour. I also can't stand his usual palette, which the famously snooty UK art critic Brian Sewell described as 'excremental', to be honest I much prefer his father's illustrative work.

As Catherine Storr's 'Marianne Dreams' has been mentioned I'll put in a word for two excellent adaptations 'Paperhouse' (1988) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098061/reference and the even creepier 'Escape Into Night' (1972) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357363/reference


Taking painting to the pictures ...
www.thepicturepalace.co.uk