Andrew Wyeth, whose durable and realistic paintings of rural Pennsylvania and Maine made him one of America's best loved artists, and made his paintings some of the priciest in the world, died today. He was 91. Wyeth, who divided his time between Chadds Ford, Pa., and Cushing, Maine, died in his sleep at his home in Pennsylvania.
More than 30 years later, Wyeth attracted a different kind of attention when his several hundred paintings and drawings of Helga Testorf, many of them nudes, were first displayed. The large number of works and the palpable charge that runs through them suggest more than a simple artist-and-model rapport. The unveiling led to magazine cover stories, a traveling exhibition and careful explanations by Wyeth about his relationship with Testorf.
Throughout his career of more than seven decades, Wyeth remained a figurative painter who prospered even in times when the genre was considered passe. He was tapped to paint the official portrait of President Eisenhower and became a favorite of President Nixon, who hosted a dinner for Wyeth at the White House in 1970 when an exhibit of his work went on exhibit there. Nixon toasted Wyeth as an artist whose “painting has caught the heart of America" and added that “certainly tonight the heart of America belongs to Andrew Wyeth."
Former Los Angeles Times art critic William Wilson called Wyeth “a votive image of American traditionalism.At best Wyeth is sensitive, neurotic and accurate," Wilson said. “His existence as an American phenomenon cannot be discounted."
