New York Times Bestselling Author, Christina Baker Kline, wrote a novel based on the life of Christina Olson.
The works of Andrew Wyeth have always garnered public adoration. His original works are coveted by art collectors.
Wyeth’s exhibits routinely broke attendance records. What the artist often failed to get, was the support of art critics, who often slammed him for sticking to his own style during a time when Modernism and avant-garde movements were sweeping through the American art world.
In 1967, a retrospective of Wyeth’s work from 1938-1966 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, broke attendance records by attracting about 5,000 visitors at day and still, he was considered too sentimental and too old-fashioned by critics.
Wyeth: The life of Andrew Wyeth in bold strokes
A new documentary, that takes a penetrating look at the life of Andrew Wyeth, will be broadcast during PBS’ American Masters series on September 7, 2018. The film, by director Glenn Holsten, uses interviews with family members, visits to the places where Wyeth painted, archival material and Wyeth’s works, to create an in-depth portrait of an artist who was often misunderstood.
The great paradox of Wyeth’s career during his lifetime was the gap between his commercial success and his inability to get the respect he deserved from art critics, curators and historians. Wyeth’s life was as interesting and complex as his art. The film looks at an artist who is continually being rediscovered and appreciated by art enthusiasts.
WYETH: The life of Andrew Wyeth in bold strokes also be available on DVD and for streaming on September 7th.
A Piece of the World
Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World, one of America’s most iconic paintings, hangs in a hallway, near a bank of escalators, in the Museum of Modern Art. The museum bought Christina’s World from the Macbeth Gallery in New York, in 1949, for $1,800.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Within a decade or so the museum had banked reproduction fees amounting to hundreds of times the sum—$1,800—they had paid to acquire the picture. Today the painting’s value is measured in the millions.”
The painting inspires people to visit MoMA, just to view that one painting, and it’s inspired author Christina Baker Kline, to write a novel based on the life of Christina Olson, the woman in the painting. Christina Olson was Wyeth’s neighbor in Cushing, Maine, where he had a summer home. Christina and her brother were favorite models, and friends, of the artist for many years.
Although narrated by Christina, Kline’s book A Piece of the World, is a fictionalized version of Christina’s life…a sensitive look at the life of a strong, independent woman limited by physical disabilities.
Original Andrew Wyeth Paintings at the Surovek Gallery
Please contact us for more information about Over the Hill or the other fine work available at the Surovek Gallery.
References:
David Rooney Wyeth: Film Review | Provincetown 2018 The Hollywood Reporter. June 22, 2018.
Henry Adams Wyeth’s World Smithsonian Magazine. June 2006.
Jane Ciabatarri Ten books you should read in February BBC culture February 3 2017.