Artist Andrew Wyeth dies at age 91

The American realist painter, Andrew Wyeth, passed away earlier this morning after a brief illness. From WHYY’s Arts and Culture Desk, Alex Schmidt reports.

The American realist painter, Andrew Wyeth, passed away earlier this morning after a brief illness. From WHYY’s Arts and Culture Desk, Alex Schmidt reports. [audio: arts20090116wyeth.mp3]

Transcript:

Wyeth died today in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The realist painter was born there and drew his inspiration from the rural Pennsylvania countryside. He created some of the iconic images of the American landscape. One of his most famous, Christina’s World, hangs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Jim Duff is director of the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, which has been showing Wyeth’s work since it opened in 1971.

Duff: “Here we’ve lost a great friend, a man of extraordinary perception, who always helped us illuminate our lives and the lives of others and our surroundings through his art and through his personality.”

Wyeth’s precise technique was inherited in part from his father, illustrator N.C. Wyeth. His style has influenced a generation of artists, including Wyeth’s own son, the painter Jamie. Andrew Wyeth was 91.