Wyeth People: A Portrait of Andrew Wyeth As Seen by His Friends and Neighbors
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Wyeth People: A Portrait of Andrew Wyeth As Seen by His Friends and Neighbors Details
From Publishers Weekly Twenty years ago, Logsdonthen a roving editor for Farm Journal (which he still edits)poked around rural Pennsylvania and Maine, interviewing people whom Andrew Wyeth had featured in various portrait paintings. This slim, hero-worshipping volume resulted, and one can understand why the artist asked Logsdon to desist from his snooping. Among those with whom Logsdon chatted were lumberman Ralph Cline (immortalized in Wyeth's The Patriot ), Willard Snowden (subject of The Drifter ), farmers Karl Kuerner and Forrest Wall, and the family of Christina Olson (the woman portrayed in Christina's World ). The shallow interviews tell us little about Wyeth, only that he was a fine person, highly independent, not dogmatic, etc. The author also offers a puerile account of his tracking of Wyeth himself and of his wife's polite rebuffs. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From Library Journal Growing up on a farm, journalist Logsdon had admired Wyeth's uncanny ability to see rural life as a farmer might and had made him his artistic hero. Eventually his search for the man behind the paintings led him to the Olson farm, Chadds Ford, and other Wyeth shrines; he interviewed Wyeth's friends and models and even spoke with Wyeth himself on several occasions. In the end the reclusive Wyeth remains a mystery; we learn more about Wyeth's models and about Logsdon himself than we do about the artist. Nonetheless, Logsdon's engaging and often humorous effort to reveal Wyeth's character will be of interest to his admirers. Douglas G. Campbell, Warner Pacific Coll., Portland, Ore.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more
Reviews
This is a great book. It is about the people in Wyeth's paintings, and about Wyeth himself.It is very interesting. These are good plain folks. Their view of life and Wyeth is humbling.