1 00:00:10,866 --> 00:00:15,800 ♪♪ 2 00:00:21,866 --> 00:00:24,133 ♪♪ 3 00:00:24,533 --> 00:00:29,933 -He paints the soul, not just an image. 4 00:00:29,966 --> 00:00:32,766 -That was what was amazing about my father. 5 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,700 He saw things that other people just wouldn't see. 6 00:00:35,733 --> 00:00:37,100 [ Creaks ] 7 00:00:37,133 --> 00:00:41,600 -He had almost a painful sensitivity. 8 00:00:41,633 --> 00:00:44,366 -The abstraction in his pictures. 9 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,700 The fantastic compositional sense. 10 00:00:46,733 --> 00:00:48,133 And the toughness in them. 11 00:00:48,166 --> 00:00:49,433 [ Pencil scratching ] 12 00:00:49,466 --> 00:00:51,066 In some ways the sadness, 13 00:00:51,100 --> 00:00:53,133 the meditations on death and nature... 14 00:00:53,166 --> 00:00:55,033 [ Thunder rumbles ] 15 00:00:55,066 --> 00:00:56,733 ...they're so 20th century. 16 00:00:56,766 --> 00:00:59,033 -There's a darkness to Andrew Wyeth's work. 17 00:00:59,066 --> 00:01:00,700 There's a drama. 18 00:01:00,733 --> 00:01:03,966 -If you really look at his work, it's pretty scary stuff. 19 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,800 It's kind of like a Robert Frost poem. 20 00:01:05,833 --> 00:01:08,666 You could say it's some horse in the woods with a sleigh 21 00:01:08,700 --> 00:01:10,166 and the snow, but really read it, 22 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,033 it's a hell of a lot more than that. 23 00:01:13,066 --> 00:01:16,433 -Make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. 24 00:01:16,466 --> 00:01:20,033 And you realize that something more is going on in the world. 25 00:01:20,066 --> 00:01:26,566 ♪♪ 26 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:28,766 [ Bird caws ] 27 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,433 ♪♪ 28 00:01:32,466 --> 00:01:34,333 [ Bird caws ] 29 00:01:34,366 --> 00:01:38,700 ♪♪ 30 00:01:38,733 --> 00:01:41,433 -Andrew Wyeth is one of the most highly regarded 31 00:01:41,466 --> 00:01:43,933 of American painters, if not 32 00:01:41,466 --> 00:01:43,933 the 33 00:01:41,466 --> 00:01:43,933 most. 34 00:01:43,966 --> 00:01:46,100 -Andrew Wyeth, leading American artist, 35 00:01:46,133 --> 00:01:47,700 is honored at the White House. 36 00:01:47,733 --> 00:01:49,866 -This is the Whitney Museum in New York. 37 00:01:49,900 --> 00:01:53,000 Normal daily attendance of art lovers, 500. 38 00:01:53,033 --> 00:01:56,800 For a recent Wyeth exhibit, the average was 5,000 a day. 39 00:01:56,833 --> 00:01:58,966 Attendance records were broken in Philadelphia, 40 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:00,700 Baltimore, and Chicago, too. 41 00:02:00,733 --> 00:02:04,833 -In the '60s, Andrew Wyeth was the very top artist. 42 00:02:04,866 --> 00:02:06,433 He was the artist people talked about. 43 00:02:06,466 --> 00:02:09,199 -There is something in Wyeth that appeals to the uninitiated 44 00:02:09,233 --> 00:02:11,033 and the connoisseur alike. 45 00:02:11,066 --> 00:02:13,033 He has a mass audience that may be greater 46 00:02:13,066 --> 00:02:15,033 than any other living artist ever had. 47 00:02:15,066 --> 00:02:18,033 -In a way, his popular following was a curse. 48 00:02:18,066 --> 00:02:21,033 -He had a huge audience, he had many collectors, 49 00:02:21,066 --> 00:02:22,633 and he was criticized for that. 50 00:02:22,666 --> 00:02:24,033 -Poor Andrew Wyeth. 51 00:02:24,066 --> 00:02:25,700 He has committed the final sins 52 00:02:25,733 --> 00:02:27,200 against the art establishment. 53 00:02:27,233 --> 00:02:29,566 People like his work, and he's making money now 54 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:31,700 instead of 400 years after his death. 55 00:02:31,733 --> 00:02:35,400 -There were lines around the block at the Whitney, 56 00:02:35,433 --> 00:02:38,066 but that was also the kiss of death. 57 00:02:38,100 --> 00:02:41,700 ♪♪ 58 00:02:41,733 --> 00:02:45,100 -I first met the Wyeths in the early '70s. 59 00:02:45,133 --> 00:02:48,533 I came out to Chadds Ford to meet Betsy and Andrew Wyeth, 60 00:02:48,566 --> 00:02:52,533 and found both of them very interesting people. 61 00:02:52,566 --> 00:02:56,533 I think I somehow thought Andrew Wyeth 62 00:02:56,566 --> 00:03:01,366 would be more of a bumpkin, or a hermit or a farmer type, 63 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,133 but what I found was somebody who served me 64 00:03:04,166 --> 00:03:06,666 the strongest cocktail I'd had in a long time, 65 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:08,366 who made me laugh, 66 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:12,300 and I found his wife beautiful, but also very clearly, 67 00:03:12,333 --> 00:03:14,766 I was going to have to win her approval, 68 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,133 because she wanted only the best for Andrew Wyeth. 69 00:03:18,166 --> 00:03:21,700 But I also came away thinking this is a much more complicated 70 00:03:21,733 --> 00:03:25,700 and interesting artist than I think I know 71 00:03:25,733 --> 00:03:28,900 from what's been written about him in the past. 72 00:03:28,933 --> 00:03:31,200 ♪♪ 73 00:03:31,233 --> 00:03:35,166 -One thing that stands out about Andrew Wyeth's work 74 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,433 in contrast to the work of most of his contemporaries 75 00:03:39,466 --> 00:03:44,833 is that he grew up and lived in two places and two places alone 76 00:03:44,866 --> 00:03:48,700 during a long and productive life as an artist -- 77 00:03:48,733 --> 00:03:52,133 Chadds Ford... 78 00:03:52,166 --> 00:03:53,300 [ Bell clangs ] 79 00:03:53,333 --> 00:03:56,266 ...Port Clyde and Cushing. 80 00:03:56,300 --> 00:03:58,266 The places that define his life 81 00:03:58,300 --> 00:04:03,000 were these two rural communities. 82 00:04:03,033 --> 00:04:07,166 New York was the center of the art world. 83 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:11,833 That was not Andy's world. 84 00:04:11,866 --> 00:04:14,166 -Painting to me 85 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,600 is a matter of truth 86 00:04:16,633 --> 00:04:21,266 and... 87 00:04:21,300 --> 00:04:25,100 maybe of memory. 88 00:04:25,133 --> 00:04:28,933 ♪♪ 89 00:04:28,966 --> 00:04:33,800 -He had an extraordinary childhood. 90 00:04:33,833 --> 00:04:37,700 Most artists struggle to find themselves as artists. 91 00:04:37,733 --> 00:04:41,600 Wyeth was raised from childhood to be an artist -- 92 00:04:41,633 --> 00:04:43,466 Protected, cultivated. 93 00:04:43,500 --> 00:04:46,233 I think of him like an Olympic athlete. 94 00:04:46,266 --> 00:04:49,066 N.C. Wyeth, his dad, developed him, 95 00:04:49,100 --> 00:04:51,066 trained him, encouraged him. 96 00:04:51,100 --> 00:04:56,400 -He taught me everyday living, seeing things around me. 97 00:04:56,433 --> 00:05:01,633 Seeing the imagination of what you can make out of nothing. 98 00:05:01,666 --> 00:05:06,133 -N.C. Wyeth was a famous classic illustrator. 99 00:05:06,166 --> 00:05:10,400 He painted big, bold illustrations. 100 00:05:10,433 --> 00:05:14,366 Scribner's Books was one of his major clients. 101 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:18,100 He churned out all the classics -- "Robinson Crusoe," 102 00:05:18,133 --> 00:05:20,700 "The Boy's King Arthur." 103 00:05:20,733 --> 00:05:24,066 -He and his wife ended up having a family of five children. 104 00:05:24,100 --> 00:05:26,833 There were three girls and two boys. 105 00:05:26,866 --> 00:05:29,166 It was a very creative family. 106 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,666 Henriette, Carolyn, and Andrew would become painters, 107 00:05:32,700 --> 00:05:37,333 Nat, a chemical engineer, and Ann, a composer. 108 00:05:37,366 --> 00:05:41,333 -N.C. Wyeth thought that creative adults 109 00:05:41,366 --> 00:05:44,200 retained the spirit of childhood. 110 00:05:44,233 --> 00:05:49,000 -N.C. had an ability to transform ordinary occurrences 111 00:05:49,033 --> 00:05:50,866 into bigger and better drama 112 00:05:50,900 --> 00:05:53,366 than they might have held themselves. 113 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:56,833 -The Christmases that he created for his children. 114 00:05:56,866 --> 00:05:59,400 He would dress as Santa Claus. 115 00:05:59,433 --> 00:06:02,366 It wasn't the traditional St. Nick that we know. 116 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,033 And he had a rather grotesque mask. 117 00:06:05,066 --> 00:06:08,600 -Old Kris, as we called him, was to me a terrifying man. 118 00:06:08,633 --> 00:06:10,300 He was a big man. 119 00:06:10,333 --> 00:06:13,600 And I remember when I was about 8 years old lying in bed 120 00:06:13,633 --> 00:06:17,966 and we heard stamping feet on the top of the roof. 121 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,766 And I was terrified... 122 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:25,300 to the point that I wet the bed. 123 00:06:25,333 --> 00:06:29,300 I just tell you that story 'cause that's how he believed 124 00:06:29,333 --> 00:06:32,366 in exciting our imaginations. 125 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:34,733 -N.C. Wyeth built this studio, 126 00:06:34,766 --> 00:06:39,600 which is literally 25 steps away from the house. 127 00:06:39,633 --> 00:06:42,066 -The studio was full of props 128 00:06:42,100 --> 00:06:45,466 that N.C. Wyeth needed as an illustrator. 129 00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:48,066 There are swords. There are guns here. 130 00:06:48,100 --> 00:06:52,433 There were a lot of costumes -- Robin Hood, King Arthur. 131 00:06:52,466 --> 00:06:55,600 So these were all available to the children. 132 00:06:55,633 --> 00:06:59,533 -And I made up my own stories of what was happening around me. 133 00:06:59,566 --> 00:07:03,633 These hills became Sherwood Forest, 134 00:07:03,666 --> 00:07:05,633 the English countryside, 135 00:07:05,666 --> 00:07:08,366 or the battlefields of France. 136 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:12,400 All these imaginary things floated through my mind. 137 00:07:12,433 --> 00:07:14,033 [ Bird calling ] 138 00:07:14,066 --> 00:07:16,200 ♪♪ 139 00:07:16,233 --> 00:07:19,300 -One of the things that most fascinated Andrew Wyeth 140 00:07:19,333 --> 00:07:22,466 was the amount of World War I objects 141 00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:24,533 that were here in the studio. 142 00:07:24,566 --> 00:07:27,733 N.C. Wyeth saved a lot of photographs 143 00:07:27,766 --> 00:07:31,966 of the battlefields in France, the trenches, 144 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:34,333 villages that had been totally bombed. 145 00:07:34,366 --> 00:07:36,000 [ Projectiles whistling, explosions ] 146 00:07:36,033 --> 00:07:38,333 [ Gunfire ] 147 00:07:38,366 --> 00:07:44,133 -N.C. Wyeth also had in the studio boxes of stereo cards, 148 00:07:44,166 --> 00:07:47,600 two images taken by a dual camera. 149 00:07:47,633 --> 00:07:50,733 He would put these in a hand-held machine, 150 00:07:50,766 --> 00:07:53,500 the two images on the card would come into focus, 151 00:07:53,533 --> 00:07:58,666 so you would have this amazing 3-D image in front of you. 152 00:07:58,700 --> 00:07:59,766 [ Propeller whirring, gunfire ] 153 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:01,800 Really, the horror of the war 154 00:08:01,833 --> 00:08:06,333 is absolutely displayed in these images. 155 00:08:06,366 --> 00:08:09,000 Young Andrew Wyeth would sit in the studio here 156 00:08:09,033 --> 00:08:10,333 and page through them. 157 00:08:10,366 --> 00:08:12,366 [ Explosions, gunfire ] 158 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:14,233 -He collected these small soldiers 159 00:08:14,266 --> 00:08:15,633 which were made in Germany -- 160 00:08:15,666 --> 00:08:19,233 and German soldiers and American soldiers. 161 00:08:19,266 --> 00:08:21,733 -I can look at those soldiers and remember the names 162 00:08:21,766 --> 00:08:24,166 of practically every one of them, 163 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:26,400 make up my own stories. 164 00:08:26,433 --> 00:08:30,666 ♪♪ 165 00:08:30,700 --> 00:08:32,766 -"The Big Parade," the movie by King Vidor, 166 00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:34,299 which he saw as a child, 167 00:08:34,333 --> 00:08:38,433 he was deeply influenced by that film. 168 00:08:38,466 --> 00:08:39,966 [ Bombs whistling ] 169 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,200 [ Loud explosions ] 170 00:08:42,233 --> 00:08:46,666 I, myself, watched it at least 30 times with him. 171 00:08:46,700 --> 00:08:49,933 He watched it probably over 200 times. 172 00:08:49,966 --> 00:08:52,366 So, you know, that's kind of more than just liking a movie. 173 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:56,266 -The French girl trying to find him in the crowd, 174 00:08:56,300 --> 00:09:00,933 and the motion of carriages going, and her figure there. 175 00:09:00,966 --> 00:09:06,566 I thought it was very dramatic leaving her lone figure there 176 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:09,966 against that rather -- that painted background. 177 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:15,033 But interesting, what you can do with almost nothing. 178 00:09:15,066 --> 00:09:21,733 ♪♪ 179 00:09:21,766 --> 00:09:28,466 ♪♪ 180 00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:35,166 ♪♪ 181 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:39,933 -This is the house where my father met my mother. 182 00:09:39,966 --> 00:09:43,333 Ma's father was a newspaper editor. 183 00:09:43,366 --> 00:09:45,733 And he had heard of N.C. Wyeth, 184 00:09:45,766 --> 00:09:48,933 and he called upon him in Port Clyde. 185 00:09:48,966 --> 00:09:52,000 And when he was there, he met my father, 186 00:09:52,033 --> 00:09:53,400 and he told my father, he said, "You know, 187 00:09:53,433 --> 00:09:55,433 I've got three attractive daughters." 188 00:09:55,466 --> 00:09:58,333 So, my father, on his birthday, a few days later, 189 00:09:58,366 --> 00:10:01,033 drove over here, knocked on the door, 190 00:10:01,066 --> 00:10:04,233 and met my mother. 191 00:10:04,266 --> 00:10:06,066 -Betsy said, "You know, Mary, 192 00:10:06,100 --> 00:10:10,600 when I was being courted by Andrew Wyeth, 193 00:10:10,633 --> 00:10:13,733 it was a wild, passionate courtship. 194 00:10:13,766 --> 00:10:17,000 I received letters from him every day. 195 00:10:17,033 --> 00:10:18,933 Sometimes two a day. 196 00:10:18,966 --> 00:10:21,433 They had drawings in them, 197 00:10:21,466 --> 00:10:24,233 and I came home and we were married. 198 00:10:24,266 --> 00:10:26,733 And then we went up to Maine. 199 00:10:26,766 --> 00:10:30,166 And we had fun on a boat for a little while, 200 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:34,133 and then -- pshoo -- right back into the studio. 201 00:10:34,166 --> 00:10:39,233 And I realized I came second to his paintings. 202 00:10:39,266 --> 00:10:44,133 And I had to choose to be with him or not." 203 00:10:44,166 --> 00:10:48,700 ♪♪ 204 00:10:48,733 --> 00:10:51,666 -My father had absolutely zero interest 205 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:54,700 in money or possessions. 206 00:10:54,733 --> 00:10:57,066 And so she took all those elements out of his work. 207 00:10:57,100 --> 00:11:00,566 I think, when he started to have a degree of success and whatnot, 208 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:02,666 she made sure that it wasn't going to impinge 209 00:11:02,700 --> 00:11:04,300 on what he wanted to do, 210 00:11:04,333 --> 00:11:06,800 and all he wanted to do was paint. 211 00:11:06,833 --> 00:11:09,400 -Andrew Wyeth would not be Andrew Wyeth without Betsy. 212 00:11:09,433 --> 00:11:12,066 -At the young age of 18 years old, 213 00:11:12,100 --> 00:11:15,266 Betsy became Andrew's manager. 214 00:11:15,300 --> 00:11:16,966 -She was self-taught. 215 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 When he had a dealer, Robert Macbeth, 216 00:11:20,033 --> 00:11:22,233 it's interesting to see some of the early letters 217 00:11:22,266 --> 00:11:27,800 of this young 18-, 19-year-old questioning the commission 218 00:11:27,833 --> 00:11:32,200 that they were paying on some of Andy's work. 219 00:11:32,233 --> 00:11:35,266 -She was the one that was very strict on him, 220 00:11:35,300 --> 00:11:37,133 forced him to, as she would say, 221 00:11:37,166 --> 00:11:39,466 "work on it until it couldn't be better." 222 00:11:39,500 --> 00:11:41,700 I think that charged him. 223 00:11:41,733 --> 00:11:44,566 -He was very dependent on her eye. 224 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:48,700 -He would bring a painting home and show it to her proudly 225 00:11:48,733 --> 00:11:50,733 and hang it on the wall in the mill, 226 00:11:50,766 --> 00:11:53,233 and they would work on a title together. 227 00:11:53,266 --> 00:11:56,833 -What a remarkable partnership my mother and father were. 228 00:11:56,866 --> 00:11:58,166 I mean, they both were 229 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:00,766 two halves of this remarkable whole. 230 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,733 ♪♪ 231 00:12:03,766 --> 00:12:07,400 -I am just stunned by his technical expertise. 232 00:12:07,433 --> 00:12:11,733 He is such a fabulous draftsman. 233 00:12:11,766 --> 00:12:16,300 -To see his hands actually go through a drawing, 234 00:12:16,333 --> 00:12:19,333 he was like a conductor with a symphony. 235 00:12:19,366 --> 00:12:22,833 -Andy could paint the wind. 236 00:12:22,866 --> 00:12:30,500 ♪♪ 237 00:12:30,533 --> 00:12:38,200 ♪♪ 238 00:12:38,233 --> 00:12:45,866 ♪♪ 239 00:12:45,900 --> 00:12:48,233 -When Andrew Wyeth's work was first seen, 240 00:12:48,266 --> 00:12:51,533 he had a watercolor show in 1937, 241 00:12:51,566 --> 00:12:54,666 when he was all of 20 years old that is said to have sold out 242 00:12:54,700 --> 00:12:56,433 in a couple of days. 243 00:12:56,466 --> 00:12:59,800 -He was a bright and rising young star. 244 00:12:59,833 --> 00:13:03,500 -For the first 10 years or so of his exhibiting life, 245 00:13:03,533 --> 00:13:05,933 he was an artist to keep your eye on. 246 00:13:05,966 --> 00:13:09,166 He had very high success in selling, 247 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:12,533 but also critical success. 248 00:13:12,566 --> 00:13:17,366 ♪♪ 249 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:19,333 -My father meant a great deal to me, 250 00:13:19,366 --> 00:13:21,700 and we had a marvelous time together, 251 00:13:21,733 --> 00:13:24,800 not just as a father but as someone to talk to. 252 00:13:24,833 --> 00:13:26,866 You know? 253 00:13:26,900 --> 00:13:32,433 And I think having him taken away so quickly and abruptly, 254 00:13:32,466 --> 00:13:33,833 it really jolted me. 255 00:13:33,866 --> 00:13:35,133 [ Train wheels clacking ] 256 00:13:35,166 --> 00:13:36,200 [ Train whistle blows ] 257 00:13:36,233 --> 00:13:37,333 [ Train rumbling ] 258 00:13:42,966 --> 00:13:48,400 ♪♪ 259 00:13:48,433 --> 00:13:52,100 -He was up in Maine when N.C. was killed. 260 00:13:52,133 --> 00:13:54,866 [ Bell tolls ] 261 00:13:54,900 --> 00:13:59,100 The day of the funeral, Andy wanted to see his father, 262 00:13:59,133 --> 00:14:01,900 wanted to spend some time alone with him. 263 00:14:01,933 --> 00:14:06,166 And Andy said to me, 264 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,200 "I went into that room. 265 00:14:09,233 --> 00:14:11,066 The windows were open, 266 00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:16,866 and I saw the light come across my father's face, 267 00:14:16,900 --> 00:14:21,900 and the wind out the windows blowing the leaves." 268 00:14:21,933 --> 00:14:24,100 ♪♪ 269 00:14:24,133 --> 00:14:28,633 Tears are starting to well up as if he's reliving it. 270 00:14:28,666 --> 00:14:30,766 He says, "I had to do that -- 271 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:34,000 to spend time with him. 272 00:14:34,033 --> 00:14:37,366 And seeing the beauty of the wind, 273 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,000 the light across his face. 274 00:14:40,033 --> 00:14:43,966 This is what I'm trying to tell you. 275 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:45,400 Paint your life history, 276 00:14:45,433 --> 00:14:47,833 do the things that mean something to you." 277 00:14:47,866 --> 00:14:51,066 And I'm crying now, and he's crying. 278 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:56,533 "Do the things that are your own." 279 00:14:58,233 --> 00:15:00,533 "Paint your life." 280 00:15:00,566 --> 00:15:04,400 ♪♪ 281 00:15:04,433 --> 00:15:10,333 -I think that it changed me from just painting pictures 282 00:15:10,366 --> 00:15:13,266 into painting a reality with an edge, 283 00:15:13,300 --> 00:15:15,466 with a meaning. 284 00:15:15,500 --> 00:15:18,900 His death really gave me a meaning to paint. 285 00:15:18,933 --> 00:15:20,066 It's a strange thing. 286 00:15:20,100 --> 00:15:26,833 ♪♪ 287 00:15:26,866 --> 00:15:29,466 -Andy explained this one time early, early on, 288 00:15:29,500 --> 00:15:32,600 coming up over the hill and you see this little farm. 289 00:15:32,633 --> 00:15:35,100 And he felt like, you know, he was in Switzerland, 290 00:15:35,133 --> 00:15:38,633 just seeing this little farm nestled from the hill. 291 00:15:38,666 --> 00:15:40,233 There's an intimacy about this place, 292 00:15:40,266 --> 00:15:43,433 there's a magic, the excitement of the unknown. 293 00:15:43,466 --> 00:15:46,433 -This farm, he'd walk over here from our house, 294 00:15:46,466 --> 00:15:48,100 which is just over the hill, 295 00:15:48,133 --> 00:15:51,966 and just disappear into the Kuerner world. 296 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,800 -The Kuerners were tremendously forbearing neighbors 297 00:15:55,833 --> 00:15:59,900 in that they just let Andy Wyeth come and go, like a ghost. 298 00:15:59,933 --> 00:16:02,466 I mean, he liked it that way. 299 00:16:02,500 --> 00:16:05,666 -Growing up you would see this figure coming in and out, 300 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:09,333 which would be Andy, observing him living his life, 301 00:16:09,366 --> 00:16:14,100 and him observing us living ours. 302 00:16:14,133 --> 00:16:18,033 -He didn't really want to upset their daily life. 303 00:16:18,066 --> 00:16:20,333 And they just let him creep through the house 304 00:16:20,366 --> 00:16:22,600 and then disappear. 305 00:16:22,633 --> 00:16:26,266 I think he really enjoyed that voyeuristic aspect. 306 00:16:26,300 --> 00:16:28,366 It was fabulous freedom for him, 307 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,666 and a sense of his own domain, 308 00:16:30,700 --> 00:16:34,300 where he could be like a fly on the wall and watch them. 309 00:16:34,333 --> 00:16:37,366 -When I lost my father in an accident, 310 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:40,533 right near where Kuerners lived, 311 00:16:40,566 --> 00:16:43,833 and I regretted so that I hadn't done his portrait. 312 00:16:43,866 --> 00:16:47,733 And Karl reminded me of my father in many ways. 313 00:16:47,766 --> 00:16:51,300 Karl was a much more Germanic-looking man, 314 00:16:51,333 --> 00:16:55,900 but they both had that tough quality, Germanic power. 315 00:16:55,933 --> 00:16:57,533 ♪♪ 316 00:16:57,566 --> 00:17:01,733 And I realized that here was my father still alive. 317 00:17:01,766 --> 00:17:03,800 ♪♪ 318 00:17:03,833 --> 00:17:06,866 -Karl is a man of hog-butchering and hunting, 319 00:17:06,900 --> 00:17:10,300 of guns and knives and no nonsense, 320 00:17:10,333 --> 00:17:11,966 a man of the land. 321 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,233 -He wasn't just a Pennsylvania farmer to me. 322 00:17:16,266 --> 00:17:18,966 I mean, I'll be there alone in that house, 323 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,033 and now, all of a sudden, a shot will ring out. 324 00:17:22,066 --> 00:17:24,933 [ Gunshots ] And it's Karl maybe hunting deer 325 00:17:24,966 --> 00:17:27,533 or maybe he was just target-practicing. 326 00:17:27,566 --> 00:17:29,466 And you'll go into his house 327 00:17:29,500 --> 00:17:33,633 and you'll see these rifles slung on the wall. 328 00:17:33,666 --> 00:17:36,233 There's a military feeling. 329 00:17:36,266 --> 00:17:39,100 -Karl was a former machine gunner 330 00:17:39,133 --> 00:17:40,966 in the German army. 331 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:42,766 And, all of a sudden, it was 332 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,200 as if one of his toy soldiers had come to life, 333 00:17:45,233 --> 00:17:48,866 because there was Karl Kuerner with his helmet and his medals 334 00:17:48,900 --> 00:17:53,266 and his coat and his scars and his battle stories, 335 00:17:53,300 --> 00:17:57,600 willing, in his broken English, to speak to Andrew Wyeth. 336 00:17:57,633 --> 00:18:01,600 -And that was totally part of Wyeth's imagination -- 337 00:18:01,633 --> 00:18:04,933 the violence that lurked in his past, 338 00:18:04,966 --> 00:18:09,266 that then somehow enacted itself in Karl as a hunter. 339 00:18:09,300 --> 00:18:12,133 That latent violence fascinated Wyeth. 340 00:18:12,166 --> 00:18:16,400 He always loved to sort of poke at the dark side. 341 00:18:16,433 --> 00:18:18,433 -And I think that if you look 342 00:18:18,466 --> 00:18:20,766 at the paintings of Kuerners of mine, 343 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:23,433 you'll begin to sense it's not a quaint farm 344 00:18:23,466 --> 00:18:27,133 where they work in the garden and they milk their cows. 345 00:18:27,166 --> 00:18:31,600 When they slaughter a pig, it's -- it's brutal. 346 00:18:31,633 --> 00:18:34,366 ♪♪ 347 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,766 And I was attracted by this. 348 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:38,833 ♪♪ 349 00:18:38,866 --> 00:18:43,466 [ Birds chirping ] 350 00:18:43,500 --> 00:18:45,266 -There are very few places he did this in. 351 00:18:45,300 --> 00:18:47,100 He never traveled. [ Goat bleats ] 352 00:18:47,133 --> 00:18:51,000 Never went to Europe, you know, to paint. 353 00:18:51,033 --> 00:18:54,500 He wanted to totally tune in to something that he could 354 00:18:54,533 --> 00:18:56,833 comprehend and get deeper and deeper and deeper. 355 00:18:56,866 --> 00:18:58,833 And then this -- And he'd get thrilled. 356 00:18:58,866 --> 00:19:00,933 I mean, he would tell me he couldn't sleep at night, 357 00:19:00,966 --> 00:19:03,333 to get back there the next day to work on something. 358 00:19:03,366 --> 00:19:07,300 I mean, we're talking about 50 years of it, you know? 359 00:19:07,333 --> 00:19:09,333 Wouldn't you think he'd maybe look for another farm? 360 00:19:09,366 --> 00:19:12,233 No, didn't interest him. 361 00:19:12,266 --> 00:19:14,166 ♪♪ 362 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:17,666 And with Kuerner, even after death, 363 00:19:17,700 --> 00:19:20,166 he then did the painting of Karl 364 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:24,300 lying on this hillside as a drift of snow. 365 00:19:24,333 --> 00:19:31,266 ♪♪ 366 00:19:31,300 --> 00:19:32,633 [ Wind blowing ] 367 00:19:32,666 --> 00:19:34,233 [ Waves washing shoreline ] 368 00:19:34,266 --> 00:19:40,966 ♪♪ 369 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:45,600 -Maine, to Andy, was like the surface of the moon. 370 00:19:45,633 --> 00:19:52,300 Harsh, but it was also...fundamental. 371 00:19:52,333 --> 00:19:55,233 ♪♪ 372 00:19:55,266 --> 00:19:58,900 -Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, there are big stone houses, 373 00:19:58,933 --> 00:20:00,866 big trees, and whatnot. 374 00:20:00,900 --> 00:20:03,433 My father always said, which I think is absolutely true, 375 00:20:03,466 --> 00:20:05,566 that in Maine, it's as if a wind could come along 376 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:07,333 and just -- wshhh -- blow everything away. 377 00:20:07,366 --> 00:20:10,333 People are hanging on tenaciously. 378 00:20:10,366 --> 00:20:15,566 And to my father, that contrast was important to him. 379 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:21,733 -To me, the appeal of Maine is utter simplicity. 380 00:20:21,766 --> 00:20:26,200 The people that live here work off the land or the sea. 381 00:20:28,666 --> 00:20:31,500 -The Olson House sits atop a hill, 382 00:20:31,533 --> 00:20:35,500 overlooking the water -- the Cushing peninsula. 383 00:20:35,533 --> 00:20:37,733 The Olson House is a national historic landmark 384 00:20:37,766 --> 00:20:40,433 because of the work that one of America's 385 00:20:40,466 --> 00:20:44,566 most important artists did over a 30-year period. 386 00:20:45,900 --> 00:20:48,533 -For a number of years, that's all I painted in Maine, 387 00:20:48,566 --> 00:20:50,566 were the Olsons. 388 00:20:52,566 --> 00:20:56,433 I could just pour all my thoughts. 389 00:20:56,466 --> 00:21:00,700 Imagination ran free because the house was full of 390 00:21:00,733 --> 00:21:03,033 ghosts of the past of New England. 391 00:21:03,066 --> 00:21:04,600 I mean, it was unbelievable. 392 00:21:04,633 --> 00:21:07,966 They were seafaring people, the Olsons. 393 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:09,700 -The Olsons were poor. 394 00:21:09,733 --> 00:21:12,666 They were sustenance farmers. 395 00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:16,466 Everyday life was an extraordinary challenge. 396 00:21:16,500 --> 00:21:19,400 -Christina was not emotional outwardly. 397 00:21:19,433 --> 00:21:24,233 She was perhaps as serene as anyone I have ever known. 398 00:21:24,266 --> 00:21:27,400 And she had great poise and self-confidence, 399 00:21:27,433 --> 00:21:29,733 so that one forgot the fact that she was lame. 400 00:21:29,766 --> 00:21:33,366 She -- There was no self-pitying in her. 401 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:35,033 -Christina Olson suffered 402 00:21:35,066 --> 00:21:39,800 from a still not entirely diagnosed neurological disease 403 00:21:39,833 --> 00:21:41,633 that gradually, over decades, 404 00:21:41,666 --> 00:21:44,233 deprived her of the ability to walk. 405 00:21:44,266 --> 00:21:48,300 But by all accounts, she was a stubborn and proud woman 406 00:21:48,333 --> 00:21:50,133 who refused to use a wheelchair, 407 00:21:50,166 --> 00:21:53,166 and towards the later years of her life, 408 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,233 literally had to drag herself around, 409 00:21:55,266 --> 00:21:57,233 inside and outside the house. 410 00:21:57,266 --> 00:21:59,633 -I don't think she thought of herself maybe as a cripple. 411 00:21:59,666 --> 00:22:01,200 I don't think she liked that word, 412 00:22:01,233 --> 00:22:03,266 and I don't like it either, to describe her. 413 00:22:03,300 --> 00:22:05,100 She just accepted things as they were 414 00:22:05,133 --> 00:22:08,066 and made do with what she had. 415 00:22:08,100 --> 00:22:10,800 -Andy first met the Olsons on his first date 416 00:22:10,833 --> 00:22:13,466 with his soon-wife-to-be Betsy James. 417 00:22:13,500 --> 00:22:16,966 -She was a great friend of Betsy's, my wife. 418 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,933 They had known her as a little girl. 419 00:22:18,966 --> 00:22:21,566 And I didn't have a studio at that time. 420 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,400 We were building a house in Cushing. 421 00:22:24,433 --> 00:22:28,000 And I asked the Olsons whether I could use one of 422 00:22:28,033 --> 00:22:30,133 the upstairs rooms because it was deserted, 423 00:22:30,166 --> 00:22:34,233 and I did, and that was how it all started. 424 00:22:34,266 --> 00:22:36,233 -I always think it's so interesting that my mother, 425 00:22:36,266 --> 00:22:39,000 young Betsy James, who was 17, 426 00:22:39,033 --> 00:22:41,633 she takes him to the Olson House. 427 00:22:41,666 --> 00:22:44,333 It was hardscrabble existence in that house. 428 00:22:44,366 --> 00:22:47,733 No electricity, no water, no refrigeration. 429 00:22:47,766 --> 00:22:50,200 You know, she's sitting on stacks of newspapers 430 00:22:50,233 --> 00:22:51,533 that she'd urinate on. 431 00:22:51,566 --> 00:22:53,200 It was a lot to take. 432 00:22:53,233 --> 00:22:55,233 But he took to it like that, 433 00:22:55,266 --> 00:22:58,500 and -- and look what he produced from it. 434 00:22:58,533 --> 00:23:00,033 -We had a marvelous time together. 435 00:23:00,066 --> 00:23:03,000 Sometimes we wouldn't say a thing for hours, 436 00:23:03,033 --> 00:23:04,466 and then we'd talk. 437 00:23:04,500 --> 00:23:09,233 She felt very easy with me and, I think, enjoyed it. 438 00:23:09,266 --> 00:23:11,233 -And again, it's this world 439 00:23:11,266 --> 00:23:13,800 that my father then sort of morphed into, 440 00:23:13,833 --> 00:23:17,100 as he had done in Pennsylvania, I think, with the Kuerner farm. 441 00:23:17,133 --> 00:23:20,733 And...it was magic. 442 00:23:25,900 --> 00:23:29,366 ♪♪ 443 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:33,200 -I saw her crawling out to a little truck garden she had 444 00:23:33,233 --> 00:23:34,966 next to the house one day. 445 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,133 And it dawned on me, what a terrific, I mean... 446 00:23:38,166 --> 00:23:40,800 And I went home and made a quick notation 447 00:23:40,833 --> 00:23:44,866 of this idea of Christine in the field, 448 00:23:44,900 --> 00:23:48,466 the house in the background. 449 00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:50,833 And several days went by, 450 00:23:50,866 --> 00:23:53,266 and this kept building in my mind. 451 00:23:53,300 --> 00:23:55,100 -"Christina's World" is a picture 452 00:23:55,133 --> 00:23:57,133 that's actually kind of hard to look at anymore, 453 00:23:57,166 --> 00:23:59,433 because it's become such an icon 454 00:23:59,466 --> 00:24:04,000 that to come to it fresh is almost impossible. 455 00:24:04,033 --> 00:24:06,500 But that, in a way, is a sign of its strength, 456 00:24:06,533 --> 00:24:09,533 that, over decades, people come back to it, 457 00:24:09,566 --> 00:24:12,600 generation after generation, and find it haunting. 458 00:24:12,633 --> 00:24:16,600 Even people who don't really know the story of Christina. 459 00:24:16,633 --> 00:24:19,533 -It's enjoyed because there's a spectrum of emotions 460 00:24:19,566 --> 00:24:21,200 that it can release. 461 00:24:21,233 --> 00:24:25,533 And that might be loneliness, it might be yearning, 462 00:24:25,566 --> 00:24:28,566 it might be something that's lost 463 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:32,033 that can never be seen or rescued again. 464 00:24:32,066 --> 00:24:34,333 It can look like somebody's dream -- 465 00:24:34,366 --> 00:24:36,166 a nightmare, maybe even. 466 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,100 This woman seen from the rear, 467 00:24:38,133 --> 00:24:41,733 moving herself up towards a little haunted house 468 00:24:41,766 --> 00:24:45,733 that's on this very strong horizon. 469 00:24:45,766 --> 00:24:48,100 -A woman longing for something. 470 00:24:48,133 --> 00:24:50,833 Some people pick up that she's crippled. 471 00:24:50,866 --> 00:24:54,766 Some people don't at all, and just think she's yearning. 472 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:56,700 -It's a very odd painting. 473 00:24:56,733 --> 00:24:58,933 Everything is incredibly sharp focus. 474 00:24:58,966 --> 00:25:01,366 It's this crystalline world. 475 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,100 I mean, here you have a wisp of her hair blowing, 476 00:25:04,133 --> 00:25:07,133 and then, up in the barn, you know, half a mile away, 477 00:25:07,166 --> 00:25:10,000 is a shadow of a swallow flying by. 478 00:25:10,033 --> 00:25:12,000 You know, it sure ain't realism. 479 00:25:12,033 --> 00:25:15,466 And that's what I think lifts it into just another world. 480 00:25:15,500 --> 00:25:23,333 ♪♪ 481 00:25:23,366 --> 00:25:25,466 ♪♪ 482 00:25:25,500 --> 00:25:28,533 -I grew up with a young colored boy 483 00:25:28,566 --> 00:25:30,400 who I played with for years. 484 00:25:30,433 --> 00:25:33,300 He was really my closest companion as a small boy. 485 00:25:33,333 --> 00:25:35,233 Lived over the hill. 486 00:25:35,266 --> 00:25:38,933 And he was remarkable. 487 00:25:38,966 --> 00:25:42,766 And I found he had great imagination -- 488 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,033 much more than the white boys I knew. 489 00:25:47,066 --> 00:25:49,366 -One of Andrew Wyeth's closest friends in childhood 490 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,266 was David Lawrence, who was a young African-American boy, 491 00:25:52,300 --> 00:25:56,533 who brought him to this part of Chadds Ford. 492 00:25:56,566 --> 00:25:59,600 The black community here was called Little Africa, 493 00:25:59,633 --> 00:26:01,433 which may sound charming now, 494 00:26:01,466 --> 00:26:03,500 but it really reminds us of an era 495 00:26:03,533 --> 00:26:06,466 when neighborhoods that were mostly populated by black people 496 00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:09,133 had derisive nicknames given to them by whites. 497 00:26:09,166 --> 00:26:10,833 ♪♪ 498 00:26:10,866 --> 00:26:13,200 It was because of this insider introduction 499 00:26:13,233 --> 00:26:15,600 Wyeth was able to access these people 500 00:26:15,633 --> 00:26:18,200 for portraits and for paintings. 501 00:26:18,233 --> 00:26:20,766 ♪♪ 502 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,666 -I didn't paint them because they were black people. 503 00:26:23,700 --> 00:26:27,433 I painted them because they were my friends. 504 00:26:27,466 --> 00:26:28,633 And I've always felt 505 00:26:28,666 --> 00:26:34,700 that the blacks have been painted very poorly. 506 00:26:34,733 --> 00:26:37,033 I'm not saying that I've done it well, 507 00:26:37,066 --> 00:26:39,966 but I think they've been caricatured. 508 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,366 Big lips, big eyes. 509 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,666 ♪♪ 510 00:26:47,700 --> 00:26:51,166 -So, we're here at the ruins of Mother Archie's Church. 511 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,300 By the middle of the 20th century, 512 00:26:53,333 --> 00:26:57,100 it was being used as an African-American church. 513 00:26:57,133 --> 00:26:59,100 The congregation dwindled to a number 514 00:26:59,133 --> 00:27:01,166 that really couldn't support it anymore. 515 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,666 And it was converted into a residence. 516 00:27:03,700 --> 00:27:06,000 Different people that Wyeth painted 517 00:27:06,033 --> 00:27:08,233 lived for a time in the church, as they did 518 00:27:08,266 --> 00:27:12,033 in different makeshift spaces around the area. 519 00:27:12,066 --> 00:27:16,100 -We got along the same as sisters and brothers. 520 00:27:16,133 --> 00:27:18,900 In this place you call Chadds Ford, 521 00:27:18,933 --> 00:27:23,166 we got along the same as sisters and brothers. 522 00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,733 Andy painted a lot of colored people's pictures around here. 523 00:27:26,766 --> 00:27:28,400 A lot of 'em. 524 00:27:28,433 --> 00:27:31,933 ♪♪ 525 00:27:31,966 --> 00:27:34,133 -James Loper was mentally challenged, 526 00:27:34,166 --> 00:27:36,366 and he would take these long, rambling walks 527 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,366 through the countryside around the Wyeth compound. 528 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:44,600 -This James Loper painting, 1950. 529 00:27:44,633 --> 00:27:47,766 His clothes were all old and fishhooks, 530 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,500 and he was looking up to the left. 531 00:27:50,533 --> 00:27:53,233 Over his head was a sickle, 532 00:27:53,266 --> 00:27:57,433 and over the sickle was a white sky. 533 00:27:57,466 --> 00:28:01,600 And unless you were stupid, you knew what he meant. 534 00:28:01,633 --> 00:28:05,400 I think that's symbolic of the condition 535 00:28:05,433 --> 00:28:08,633 of the black man in the white world. 536 00:28:08,666 --> 00:28:11,966 -Willard Snowden was a hard-luck alcoholic drifter. 537 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,966 The Wyeths gave Snowden a place to live in the old schoolhouse 538 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,666 that had once been Andrew's studio. 539 00:28:18,700 --> 00:28:21,500 -He'd been around here, living in my studio for a year. 540 00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:23,766 I'd made a lot of drawings of him 541 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,166 to get through to this man, who was a remarkable man, 542 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,066 had a little problem of drinking wine. 543 00:28:30,100 --> 00:28:32,633 -Snowden was an alcoholic. 544 00:28:32,666 --> 00:28:36,333 And he constantly needed to feed that disease. 545 00:28:36,366 --> 00:28:38,566 And Andrew was really amenable to that, 546 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:44,133 sometimes using liquor as a way to get Snowden to sit for him. 547 00:28:44,166 --> 00:28:46,900 He would promise to drive him to the package store, 548 00:28:46,933 --> 00:28:49,633 before or after those sittings. 549 00:28:49,666 --> 00:28:51,233 This is a complicated thing. 550 00:28:51,266 --> 00:28:52,900 I think that this was emblematic 551 00:28:52,933 --> 00:28:55,466 of how Wyeth treated people around him, 552 00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:58,066 treated his subjects, treated his friends. 553 00:28:58,100 --> 00:29:00,000 He was nonjudgmental. 554 00:29:00,033 --> 00:29:01,733 He didn't try to change them 555 00:29:01,766 --> 00:29:04,700 or set them on a more "correct" path. 556 00:29:04,733 --> 00:29:06,700 He thought of these people 557 00:29:06,733 --> 00:29:09,900 as folks who were struggling with various challenges. 558 00:29:09,933 --> 00:29:13,200 In paintings of Snowden, sometimes we see the ravages 559 00:29:13,233 --> 00:29:15,966 of alcohol directly affecting his body. 560 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,466 We can see him in these slightly compromised situations. 561 00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:22,400 Wyeth painted him without his knowledge, occasionally. 562 00:29:22,433 --> 00:29:24,966 Wyeth both does a really beautiful thing 563 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,300 in showing his subjects as they are, 564 00:29:27,333 --> 00:29:30,800 but it's also sometimes really painful to look at 565 00:29:30,833 --> 00:29:33,666 when you know the stories of these people's lives. 566 00:29:33,700 --> 00:29:36,366 He was really interested in finding the dignity 567 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:38,633 that his subjects had, and expressing it, 568 00:29:38,666 --> 00:29:41,500 no matter how difficult their lives were. 569 00:29:41,533 --> 00:29:50,200 ♪♪ 570 00:29:50,233 --> 00:29:53,833 Andrew Wyeth was in an important 1940s exhibition 571 00:29:53,866 --> 00:29:55,333 at the Museum of Modern Art, 572 00:29:55,366 --> 00:29:58,233 called "American Realists and Magic Realists." 573 00:29:58,266 --> 00:30:06,066 ♪♪ 574 00:30:06,100 --> 00:30:08,733 -He was accepted among the avant garde. 575 00:30:08,766 --> 00:30:10,633 His work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art. 576 00:30:10,666 --> 00:30:13,333 He was seen as a magic realist. 577 00:30:13,366 --> 00:30:16,066 -His big moment was when the Museum of Modern Art 578 00:30:16,100 --> 00:30:18,466 decided to buy a painting by him. 579 00:30:18,500 --> 00:30:19,866 That was in '49. 580 00:30:19,900 --> 00:30:22,133 Of course, that was "Christina's World." 581 00:30:22,166 --> 00:30:24,300 ♪♪ 582 00:30:24,333 --> 00:30:26,566 So, this looked, at the moment, 583 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:29,066 that Andrew Wyeth was entering into dialogue 584 00:30:29,100 --> 00:30:31,400 with all the great modern masters 585 00:30:31,433 --> 00:30:33,200 that the Museum of Modern Art collected, 586 00:30:33,233 --> 00:30:35,333 and he was being integrated 587 00:30:35,366 --> 00:30:38,733 into what was seen as the most important collection 588 00:30:38,766 --> 00:30:41,233 of contemporary art in this country. 589 00:30:41,266 --> 00:30:48,866 ♪♪ 590 00:30:48,900 --> 00:30:52,700 -I want to express my feelings, rather than illustrate them. 591 00:30:52,733 --> 00:30:57,033 ♪♪ 592 00:30:57,066 --> 00:31:00,466 Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. 593 00:31:00,500 --> 00:31:02,766 ♪♪ 594 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,966 -There comes a moment, mostly in the '60s and '70s, 595 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,600 where abstract art 596 00:31:07,633 --> 00:31:10,866 becomes the definition of what contemporary art is. 597 00:31:10,900 --> 00:31:13,566 -Modern artists don't try to mirror or illustrate 598 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:15,733 the new, complex world. 599 00:31:15,766 --> 00:31:18,366 But like the artists of any age, they cannot help expressing 600 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,600 the basic assumptions of their time. 601 00:31:20,633 --> 00:31:25,900 -It's the era of de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock. 602 00:31:25,933 --> 00:31:29,033 -I don't work from drawings or colored sketches. 603 00:31:29,066 --> 00:31:31,233 My painting is direct. 604 00:31:31,266 --> 00:31:33,966 -It's always been the responsibility of an artist 605 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:38,466 to examine what is in the world at this moment. 606 00:31:38,500 --> 00:31:44,066 An artist can't afford to be a sentimental commentator. 607 00:31:44,100 --> 00:31:46,200 -And in that climate, 608 00:31:46,233 --> 00:31:49,266 Andrew began to look old-fashioned. 609 00:31:49,300 --> 00:31:51,200 -But some very few artists 610 00:31:51,233 --> 00:31:53,800 still find a means of personal expression 611 00:31:53,833 --> 00:31:56,100 in the traditional and the familiar. 612 00:31:56,133 --> 00:31:58,900 Such a painter is Andrew Wyeth. 613 00:31:58,933 --> 00:32:01,533 -In the art world, 614 00:32:01,566 --> 00:32:04,800 Andrew Wyeth was thought of as a regionalist 615 00:32:04,833 --> 00:32:08,033 or sort of a down-home painter. 616 00:32:08,066 --> 00:32:11,000 Maybe just the populism of it, you know? 617 00:32:11,033 --> 00:32:12,466 Because he was so popular. 618 00:32:12,500 --> 00:32:14,533 -There was a sense that he was easy, 619 00:32:14,566 --> 00:32:17,266 that the reason he gathered these mass audiences 620 00:32:17,300 --> 00:32:20,300 for his exhibition was because he was accessible. 621 00:32:20,333 --> 00:32:23,400 Members of that audience could understand his art 622 00:32:23,433 --> 00:32:27,633 and be moved by it without having to work very hard. 623 00:32:28,733 --> 00:32:31,266 -That's when critics really started to slam him, 624 00:32:31,300 --> 00:32:34,633 that, "Oh, he's this popular with the common man, 625 00:32:34,666 --> 00:32:38,400 then he can't really be taken seriously." 626 00:32:38,433 --> 00:32:40,333 -"Christina's World" -- the painting hangs 627 00:32:40,366 --> 00:32:42,300 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 628 00:32:42,333 --> 00:32:44,266 and a million people a year look at it. 629 00:32:44,300 --> 00:32:49,100 -There was also this sense that Wyeth played to his audience, 630 00:32:49,133 --> 00:32:54,033 that he wasn't subtle enough or nuanced enough. 631 00:32:54,066 --> 00:32:56,200 -Is it possible for an artist himself 632 00:32:56,233 --> 00:32:58,800 to say how he would like to be described, 633 00:32:58,833 --> 00:33:01,133 if you could write the definitive statement? 634 00:33:01,166 --> 00:33:03,133 -It's very hard to put it into words, 635 00:33:03,166 --> 00:33:06,000 but I'd say my whole aim is to try to do a portrait 636 00:33:06,033 --> 00:33:09,633 of the things that emotionally mean a great deal to me. 637 00:33:09,666 --> 00:33:12,033 -I don't feel he's a 20th-century artist. 638 00:33:12,066 --> 00:33:15,533 He doesn't leave anything up to your own imagination. 639 00:33:15,566 --> 00:33:18,866 -It's like a typical poster artist. 640 00:33:18,900 --> 00:33:20,366 Norman Rockwell. 641 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,000 Beautiful pictures, but no emotional feeling. 642 00:33:24,033 --> 00:33:28,933 ♪♪ 643 00:33:28,966 --> 00:33:33,166 -I came up with this word for the critical dispute. 644 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:34,933 I would call it the Wyeth Curse. 645 00:33:34,966 --> 00:33:38,966 It was people judging him without looking at him. 646 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,666 And also people judging his audience 647 00:33:41,700 --> 00:33:45,133 as if somehow the audience that went to Andrew Wyeth 648 00:33:45,166 --> 00:33:48,133 would not be the audience that would then turn around 649 00:33:48,166 --> 00:33:50,433 and go see an exhibition by Jackson Pollock 650 00:33:50,466 --> 00:33:52,633 or Willem de Kooning. 651 00:33:52,666 --> 00:33:54,500 -When "Groundhog Day" was purchased 652 00:33:54,533 --> 00:33:56,366 by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 653 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,966 it was the highest price ever paid for a contemporary artist. 654 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,066 That almost created a certain kind of resentment, 655 00:34:03,100 --> 00:34:06,033 among bohemian artists who were starving in garrets, 656 00:34:06,066 --> 00:34:08,633 that Wyeth was so successful, that he was making 657 00:34:08,666 --> 00:34:11,366 thousands of dollars for realist paintings. 658 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,433 It somehow rubbed against the grain. 659 00:34:13,466 --> 00:34:16,033 And so where Wyeth had actually been swimming along 660 00:34:16,066 --> 00:34:18,400 with all these other painters, happily, 661 00:34:18,433 --> 00:34:20,600 he suddenly was made into an opposition. 662 00:34:20,633 --> 00:34:22,266 It wounded him, 663 00:34:22,300 --> 00:34:24,666 and he really was driven into retreat. 664 00:34:24,699 --> 00:34:28,033 And what he did was run to Chadds Ford and to Maine 665 00:34:28,066 --> 00:34:31,366 and just make his own world for himself. 666 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,400 ♪♪ 667 00:34:34,433 --> 00:34:36,600 -The enviable thing about painting is 668 00:34:36,633 --> 00:34:39,466 that you can continue to paint. It really has no real effect. 669 00:34:39,500 --> 00:34:43,133 It's not like theater, where they close the theater, film, 670 00:34:43,166 --> 00:34:46,766 I mean, you know, bad reviews and so forth. 671 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,933 He kept on painting, 672 00:34:48,966 --> 00:34:51,433 which, of course, drives the critics mad. 673 00:34:51,466 --> 00:34:55,233 ♪♪ 674 00:34:55,266 --> 00:34:57,033 [ Wind blowing ] 675 00:34:57,066 --> 00:35:00,533 -I remember, one time, I was out there in Chadds Ford. 676 00:35:00,566 --> 00:35:03,233 I get there early, and I look out the window 677 00:35:03,266 --> 00:35:06,633 of the granary, and I see Andy walking in the snow. 678 00:35:06,666 --> 00:35:08,266 And I see him stop, and he's looking down. 679 00:35:08,300 --> 00:35:12,766 And he looks down at this dead deer in the snow. 680 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:17,100 And he's just looking at it for 10 minutes. 681 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,000 He looks, his hands behind his back, 682 00:35:22,033 --> 00:35:24,466 the way he always walked, and he looked down. 683 00:35:27,700 --> 00:35:30,666 And eventually... 684 00:35:30,700 --> 00:35:33,100 he walked back, got in his Jeep, 685 00:35:33,133 --> 00:35:35,066 drove on to the studio. 686 00:35:35,100 --> 00:35:42,700 ♪♪ 687 00:35:42,733 --> 00:35:45,833 -He's really an artist who works from memory. 688 00:35:45,866 --> 00:35:48,733 And I think it's a mischaracterization of him 689 00:35:48,766 --> 00:35:50,466 to just call him a realist. 690 00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:52,466 He doesn't operate like a camera. 691 00:35:52,500 --> 00:35:55,866 He's making stuff up. He's manipulating reality. 692 00:35:55,900 --> 00:35:58,966 He always admired the abstract expressionists 693 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,733 and felt kinship with them. 694 00:36:01,766 --> 00:36:03,766 ♪♪ 695 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,600 Looking at his work, 696 00:36:05,633 --> 00:36:08,933 you can see the splashiness, the expressiveness of his work, 697 00:36:08,966 --> 00:36:11,200 that has a lot in common with Franz Kline. 698 00:36:11,233 --> 00:36:14,300 ♪♪ 699 00:36:14,333 --> 00:36:17,433 Number two, there is this surrealistic bent, 700 00:36:17,466 --> 00:36:19,433 which is deeply modern, 701 00:36:19,466 --> 00:36:21,633 and then there's a very strong abstract style 702 00:36:21,666 --> 00:36:23,366 that he's working with. 703 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:25,400 If you look at a painting like "River Cove," 704 00:36:25,433 --> 00:36:29,133 which is really organized like a Mark Rothko -- 705 00:36:29,166 --> 00:36:31,700 big simple shapes, 706 00:36:31,733 --> 00:36:33,633 the sense of the two-dimensional pattern 707 00:36:33,666 --> 00:36:36,866 on the surface of the painting. 708 00:36:36,900 --> 00:36:38,866 -One of the awful things the critics say is 709 00:36:38,900 --> 00:36:41,500 that he paints every blade of grass. 710 00:36:41,533 --> 00:36:43,333 It's like Jackson Pollock. 711 00:36:43,366 --> 00:36:46,133 If you get up close to it, it is not every blade of grass. 712 00:36:46,166 --> 00:36:48,966 It's a strange woven pattern. 713 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,033 -He was tapping into the rhythms of nature, 714 00:36:51,066 --> 00:36:52,833 so he looked at the grass, he got it, 715 00:36:52,866 --> 00:36:54,600 it was just -- pop, pop, pop, pop, pop -- 716 00:36:54,633 --> 00:36:58,500 the brush just danced across the surface of the painting. 717 00:36:58,533 --> 00:37:00,333 -I don't think people begin to realize 718 00:37:00,366 --> 00:37:02,833 how complicated his compositions are. 719 00:37:02,866 --> 00:37:04,800 ♪♪ 720 00:37:04,833 --> 00:37:07,266 He can often do things off-center. 721 00:37:07,300 --> 00:37:09,600 He can have a house out on the left, 722 00:37:09,633 --> 00:37:11,300 with just fields to the right. 723 00:37:11,333 --> 00:37:13,866 Or the famous one of the boy running down the hill, 724 00:37:13,900 --> 00:37:15,800 where you've got all that emptiness, 725 00:37:15,833 --> 00:37:18,566 and then this little energetic, dark figure 726 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,566 that is racing from the hill. 727 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,433 His aerial views, his worm-eye views, 728 00:37:23,466 --> 00:37:28,266 his ways of featuring windows and doors up close, 729 00:37:28,300 --> 00:37:31,366 so that it's a frame within a frame. 730 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,266 He would say, over and over again, 731 00:37:33,300 --> 00:37:35,400 that he liked to turn his paintings upside down 732 00:37:35,433 --> 00:37:39,400 and judge the composition by what he saw. 733 00:37:40,433 --> 00:37:43,000 And if it didn't have the strength of composition, 734 00:37:43,033 --> 00:37:45,266 then it wasn't yet a good painting. 735 00:37:45,300 --> 00:37:46,733 -When you're looking at these paintings, 736 00:37:46,766 --> 00:37:49,300 I think you have a sense of unease, almost, 737 00:37:49,333 --> 00:37:51,833 of restlessness, of depth, 738 00:37:51,866 --> 00:37:55,100 even if you don't know the stories. 739 00:37:57,500 --> 00:37:59,633 This is the Kuerners' kitchen. 740 00:37:59,666 --> 00:38:02,500 "Groundhog Day" was begun in this room, 741 00:38:02,533 --> 00:38:04,733 and it started with him having lunch here 742 00:38:04,766 --> 00:38:06,800 and just seeing the fall of light, 743 00:38:06,833 --> 00:38:08,700 the sunshine across the wallpaper. 744 00:38:08,733 --> 00:38:10,966 That just struck his imagination. 745 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,000 And as he himself later said, 746 00:38:13,033 --> 00:38:15,833 "I left and went up on the hill 747 00:38:15,866 --> 00:38:18,366 and sat on the hill and looked down on the house 748 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:23,133 and started to make sketches from memory." 749 00:38:23,166 --> 00:38:24,733 -And I sat up there, 750 00:38:24,766 --> 00:38:28,566 and I began to think of that kitchen way down below. 751 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,533 And that's when I began to dream about what I wanted. 752 00:38:31,566 --> 00:38:35,466 I wanted you to feel the enclosure of the building 753 00:38:35,500 --> 00:38:37,666 and yet the country outside. 754 00:38:37,700 --> 00:38:40,533 -So, after imagining the whole concept, 755 00:38:40,566 --> 00:38:41,600 he came back. 756 00:38:41,633 --> 00:38:43,000 By this time, Karl had gone. 757 00:38:43,033 --> 00:38:45,366 And he started to sketch Mrs. Kuerner 758 00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:49,366 seated by the windowsill, and the family dog, Nellie. 759 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:53,200 They became part of this galaxy of the painting 760 00:38:53,233 --> 00:38:56,566 that he gradually simplified. 761 00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,033 He made dozens and dozens of drawings 762 00:38:59,066 --> 00:39:02,366 as he tried to think about, "What is the key image here?" 763 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,733 And it boiled down to just the empty table 764 00:39:05,766 --> 00:39:07,900 waiting for Karl to come home. 765 00:39:07,933 --> 00:39:10,633 -Karl was off at a farm sale, 766 00:39:10,666 --> 00:39:15,166 but there was his place, set. 767 00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,366 It's more of a portrait of Karl 768 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:21,366 than almost if it had been him being there, you know? 769 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:25,266 Knives were very important to him, as a man. 770 00:39:25,300 --> 00:39:27,366 I mean, cutting up animals, 771 00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:30,466 and he always carried a knife with him. 772 00:39:30,500 --> 00:39:35,366 I think there was a fork there, but that didn't interest me, 773 00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:38,566 'cause I wanted to express this real person. 774 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:41,266 -That's that sense of imminence in the painting. 775 00:39:41,300 --> 00:39:43,966 And then there's this strange story of the dog -- 776 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,300 you know, the nasty dog. It was a guard dog. 777 00:39:47,333 --> 00:39:51,766 -The log outside of the window with that tooth, 778 00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,433 like the fangs of the dog, 779 00:39:54,466 --> 00:39:56,100 really became the dog 780 00:39:56,133 --> 00:39:57,866 so that I could eliminate the dog. 781 00:39:57,900 --> 00:40:00,866 I realized that I was overtelling my story, 782 00:40:00,900 --> 00:40:04,600 because there were the sharp teeth of that German shepherd. 783 00:40:04,633 --> 00:40:06,933 -So, if you're looking out the window of the painting, 784 00:40:06,966 --> 00:40:09,900 there's this scary log staring at you 785 00:40:09,933 --> 00:40:13,300 that looks like it's about to come charging into the kitchen. 786 00:40:13,333 --> 00:40:17,033 That sense of violence in the very dog 787 00:40:17,066 --> 00:40:19,533 and in the Karl Kuerner who's not there anymore 788 00:40:19,566 --> 00:40:21,766 is part of the restlessness of this painting, 789 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:23,800 because on the one hand, it's so serene, 790 00:40:23,833 --> 00:40:25,433 and then, the more you look at it, 791 00:40:25,466 --> 00:40:27,766 the more there are these unsettling aspects 792 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:29,600 that can't really be explained. 793 00:40:29,633 --> 00:40:31,700 And they're part of that distillation 794 00:40:31,733 --> 00:40:33,666 of how he came to make the image. 795 00:40:38,333 --> 00:40:40,000 -American artist Andrew Wyeth, 796 00:40:40,033 --> 00:40:41,433 who is known for powerful paintings 797 00:40:41,466 --> 00:40:43,266 of tenderness and mystery, 798 00:40:43,300 --> 00:40:46,166 turns out to have kept the biggest mystery so well. 799 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:49,200 -For 15 years, Helga was the secret occupation 800 00:40:49,233 --> 00:40:51,766 of America's best-known living artist. 801 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,066 -The art world along with the general public 802 00:40:54,100 --> 00:40:57,166 and even Wyatt's wife were stunned. 803 00:40:59,066 --> 00:41:00,800 -I think it was a scandal 804 00:41:00,833 --> 00:41:03,466 partly because he'd kept all of this work secret. 805 00:41:03,500 --> 00:41:05,033 And everybody was titillated 806 00:41:05,066 --> 00:41:07,033 by the idea that he had a whole body of work 807 00:41:07,066 --> 00:41:09,133 that he was not telling his wife about, 808 00:41:09,166 --> 00:41:11,300 not telling the rest of the world about, 809 00:41:11,333 --> 00:41:13,100 and that there were a lot of nudes involved 810 00:41:13,133 --> 00:41:14,633 and a beautiful young woman. 811 00:41:14,666 --> 00:41:17,933 So that, in itself, was a kind of soap opera. 812 00:41:17,966 --> 00:41:23,200 -The day that it broke, we had "USA Today," "Time," "Newsweek" 813 00:41:23,233 --> 00:41:26,900 just zeroing in on the farm here 814 00:41:26,933 --> 00:41:29,566 and wanting to know all about this. 815 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,133 -A large body of work on one subject... 816 00:41:32,166 --> 00:41:33,700 -Over and over, he drew her. 817 00:41:33,733 --> 00:41:37,366 -You had asked about what Chadds Ford was like. 818 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,500 It wasn't as wild as Maine. 819 00:41:39,533 --> 00:41:42,400 -The Wyeths have not explained the mystery. 820 00:41:42,433 --> 00:41:45,233 -They went out to their island to get away, 821 00:41:45,266 --> 00:41:48,166 and there were helicopters going over. 822 00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:51,866 ♪♪ 823 00:41:51,900 --> 00:41:54,300 -To an outsider looking in, 824 00:41:54,333 --> 00:41:57,233 there's a story unbeknownst to them 825 00:41:57,266 --> 00:41:59,966 that draws them in like a magnet. 826 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,066 -Just the daring of this show. 827 00:42:02,100 --> 00:42:04,866 The explicitness of some of the images. 828 00:42:04,900 --> 00:42:06,900 -And I think the show is sensational. 829 00:42:06,933 --> 00:42:09,466 I don't care what the critics say. 830 00:42:09,500 --> 00:42:14,733 -That story was then twisted into a manipulation. 831 00:42:14,766 --> 00:42:16,933 -There is endless speculation 832 00:42:16,966 --> 00:42:20,633 that it was all a publicity stunt. 833 00:42:20,666 --> 00:42:23,933 -He was accused of having done the whole thing 834 00:42:23,966 --> 00:42:25,700 in order to create headlines, 835 00:42:25,733 --> 00:42:28,133 and that the secret was not a secret, 836 00:42:28,166 --> 00:42:30,466 it was a conspiracy. 837 00:42:32,266 --> 00:42:34,433 -I don't know if I told you 838 00:42:34,466 --> 00:42:41,133 about him sharing with me why he did the Helga paintings. 839 00:42:41,166 --> 00:42:44,733 ♪♪ 840 00:42:44,766 --> 00:42:48,300 He said, "I needed to be away from Betsy 841 00:42:48,333 --> 00:42:51,400 and have some space." 842 00:42:51,433 --> 00:42:54,433 -He was so happy not to ever pay bills, 843 00:42:54,466 --> 00:42:56,900 not to ever sell prints. 844 00:42:56,933 --> 00:42:58,900 Betsy took care of all of that. 845 00:42:58,933 --> 00:43:01,233 Betsy wanted to see whatever he painted that day, 846 00:43:01,266 --> 00:43:03,733 do the catalogue, number it, and so forth. 847 00:43:03,766 --> 00:43:06,333 -Why did you keep the paintings a secret? 848 00:43:06,366 --> 00:43:11,200 -I'd been painting houses, barns, 849 00:43:11,233 --> 00:43:14,833 and all of a sudden, I saw this girl, 850 00:43:14,866 --> 00:43:17,233 and I said, "My God, if I could get her to pose, 851 00:43:17,266 --> 00:43:21,066 she personifies everything I feel. 852 00:43:21,100 --> 00:43:22,466 And that's it. 853 00:43:22,500 --> 00:43:24,800 I'm not going to tell anyone about this. 854 00:43:24,833 --> 00:43:28,033 I'm just going to paint it." 855 00:43:28,066 --> 00:43:31,100 -He wanted to fulfill his soul. 856 00:43:31,133 --> 00:43:33,800 He needed just to do that for himself. 857 00:43:33,833 --> 00:43:36,500 He was always producing. No artist wants 858 00:43:36,533 --> 00:43:39,166 to be taken for granted that you produce -- 859 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:41,266 produce for the sake of producing. 860 00:43:41,300 --> 00:43:44,000 You'll never, never produce anything good 861 00:43:44,033 --> 00:43:47,633 if you don't have something you paint for yourself. 862 00:43:47,666 --> 00:43:57,333 ♪♪ 863 00:43:57,366 --> 00:44:00,400 -When word of the Helga collection came out, 864 00:44:00,433 --> 00:44:05,500 that was really shocking to her. 865 00:44:05,533 --> 00:44:07,733 She looked at me, and she said, "Did you know?" 866 00:44:07,766 --> 00:44:09,933 And I said, "No. I had no idea." 867 00:44:09,966 --> 00:44:12,433 ♪♪ 868 00:44:12,466 --> 00:44:16,266 200 drawings and watercolors. 869 00:44:16,300 --> 00:44:19,600 The rest were framed temperas. 870 00:44:19,633 --> 00:44:23,266 I kept seeing these and looking at her, 871 00:44:23,300 --> 00:44:25,700 and looking at her looking at the paintings, 872 00:44:25,733 --> 00:44:28,433 and thinking, "What is she thinking? 873 00:44:28,466 --> 00:44:32,033 How can she separate her emotion 874 00:44:32,066 --> 00:44:37,300 from the real appreciation of the paintings?" 875 00:44:37,333 --> 00:44:40,166 -It unsettled her, the fact that I never told her. 876 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,400 And it still bothers her. 877 00:44:42,433 --> 00:44:45,666 But she realizes that she's living with a man 878 00:44:45,700 --> 00:44:48,833 that's wrapped up in my painting. 879 00:44:48,866 --> 00:44:53,233 -Meanwhile, Helga felt betrayed, 880 00:44:53,266 --> 00:44:58,000 because he promised her that he would not let them out. 881 00:44:58,033 --> 00:45:00,866 -How prepared can you get? 882 00:45:00,900 --> 00:45:03,133 You don't know what's going to happen, you know? 883 00:45:03,166 --> 00:45:06,066 I was never made for the public. 884 00:45:06,100 --> 00:45:08,466 I really wasn't. 885 00:45:08,500 --> 00:45:11,800 ♪♪ 886 00:45:11,833 --> 00:45:14,866 -So, you have two very different personalities. 887 00:45:14,900 --> 00:45:17,766 Betsy was extremely controlling. 888 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,566 Helga was extremely adaptable. 889 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:25,200 If he wanted to go down the ravine in the winter -- 890 00:45:25,233 --> 00:45:28,266 One time he told me she carried a dead deer up a hill. 891 00:45:28,300 --> 00:45:30,533 So she would just do whatever he said. 892 00:45:30,566 --> 00:45:32,900 Betsy would argue. 893 00:45:32,933 --> 00:45:36,066 -He took what I had to say, and I took what he had to say. 894 00:45:36,100 --> 00:45:38,066 It's a mutual thing. 895 00:45:38,100 --> 00:45:41,700 You sense it, what he needs. 896 00:45:41,733 --> 00:45:47,233 There was no question about it. You just did it naturally. 897 00:45:47,266 --> 00:45:49,700 That's a gift. 898 00:45:49,733 --> 00:45:53,500 -It was something that I was doing, 899 00:45:53,533 --> 00:45:57,566 and my imagination -- I painted every minute. 900 00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:02,333 ♪♪ 901 00:46:02,366 --> 00:46:05,233 -Being able to paint Helga gave him 902 00:46:05,266 --> 00:46:09,466 all of this magnificent energy he never had before. 903 00:46:09,500 --> 00:46:12,100 He was actually able to double the work. 904 00:46:12,133 --> 00:46:14,700 -I was a force. 905 00:46:14,733 --> 00:46:17,366 Don't you see? I gave him confidence. 906 00:46:19,700 --> 00:46:21,933 I didn't have any doubts. 907 00:46:21,966 --> 00:46:24,700 -Many of the things he was doing concurrently 908 00:46:24,733 --> 00:46:27,966 are related to these Helga works. 909 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:34,033 ♪♪ 910 00:46:34,066 --> 00:46:37,433 -Betsy -- she has a sense of order. 911 00:46:37,466 --> 00:46:40,433 She can't stand chaos. 912 00:46:40,466 --> 00:46:43,933 You have a collection over 15 years, 913 00:46:43,966 --> 00:46:46,633 and she always wants to know 914 00:46:46,666 --> 00:46:48,966 what came first, second, third, fourth. 915 00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:51,833 What helped her deal with this whole thing 916 00:46:51,866 --> 00:46:54,333 was to put everything in order. 917 00:46:54,366 --> 00:46:57,266 And that was the only thing that grounded her. 918 00:46:57,300 --> 00:47:02,700 She was so big to rise above it 919 00:47:02,733 --> 00:47:06,233 and really appreciate the works for what they were. 920 00:47:06,266 --> 00:47:10,133 ♪♪ 921 00:47:10,166 --> 00:47:11,866 -The Helga pictures have 922 00:47:11,900 --> 00:47:13,466 some extraordinary, beautiful paintings. 923 00:47:13,500 --> 00:47:17,500 They are not only fabulous, in terms of their technique, 924 00:47:17,533 --> 00:47:19,800 but the composition, the subject matter, 925 00:47:19,833 --> 00:47:21,866 they are really striking pictures. 926 00:47:21,900 --> 00:47:25,133 So I think they're some of his finest paintings. 927 00:47:25,166 --> 00:47:26,933 There's still, of course, 928 00:47:26,966 --> 00:47:29,700 an erotic story that's unavoidable. 929 00:47:29,733 --> 00:47:31,666 That's potent in these pictures. 930 00:47:31,700 --> 00:47:34,800 But I think we can also see them as great paintings. 931 00:47:34,833 --> 00:47:37,733 -I think every painting has a mystery to it 932 00:47:37,766 --> 00:47:40,866 that only the artist and the subject know... 933 00:47:40,900 --> 00:47:44,933 that will never be shared in reality. 934 00:47:44,966 --> 00:47:49,000 -We danced, and we laughed at the whole world together. 935 00:47:50,366 --> 00:47:54,966 I think he rediscovered the whole world in himself. 936 00:47:55,000 --> 00:48:05,033 ♪♪ 937 00:48:05,066 --> 00:48:11,933 ♪♪ 938 00:48:11,966 --> 00:48:13,833 -When you know something and feel it 939 00:48:13,866 --> 00:48:17,166 and have a love for it, my God, do it. 940 00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:19,266 Don't let it go by. 941 00:48:19,300 --> 00:48:23,833 ♪♪ 942 00:48:23,866 --> 00:48:27,400 -Andrew Wyeth was an artist 24 hours a day. 943 00:48:27,433 --> 00:48:35,033 He spent the entire day walking, exploring, sketching, thinking. 944 00:48:35,066 --> 00:48:37,066 -It's like you're being a child again. 945 00:48:37,100 --> 00:48:41,266 You can do what you want, and you can do what you love. 946 00:48:41,300 --> 00:48:45,000 How many people in life get to do what they love to do? 947 00:48:45,033 --> 00:48:47,500 -I've never met anyone else 948 00:48:47,533 --> 00:48:50,400 that was alive in the world the way he was. 949 00:48:50,433 --> 00:48:54,166 -He painted up until the end. 950 00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,633 ♪♪ 951 00:48:56,666 --> 00:48:59,000 Oh, gosh. 952 00:48:59,033 --> 00:49:02,933 When he was dying in bed, in the upper bedroom, 953 00:49:02,966 --> 00:49:05,366 someone said, "Come here, look." 954 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,533 And he was asleep, but his hand... 955 00:49:09,566 --> 00:49:14,166 ♪♪ 956 00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,666 -He was drawing, in the dream. 957 00:49:16,700 --> 00:49:20,666 ♪♪ 958 00:49:20,700 --> 00:49:24,100 -His final words to me, when we were saying goodbye 959 00:49:24,133 --> 00:49:26,566 and I leaned down and he pulled me in 960 00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:28,400 and looked at me right in the eye 961 00:49:28,433 --> 00:49:30,500 and said, "Give them hell." 962 00:49:30,533 --> 00:49:36,733 -I'm so glad he lived past 2000, because it was a sea change. 963 00:49:36,766 --> 00:49:39,933 And they had a "Rediscovering Andrew Wyeth" session 964 00:49:39,966 --> 00:49:43,033 at the big national convention of art historians. 965 00:49:43,066 --> 00:49:45,400 And the young people threw aside 966 00:49:45,433 --> 00:49:48,500 all the horrible criticism of their seniors, 967 00:49:48,533 --> 00:49:50,933 rebelled, and looked at Andrew Wyeth. 968 00:49:50,966 --> 00:49:53,500 He got to participate in nine years of that, 969 00:49:53,533 --> 00:49:57,033 of hearing people look at him anew. 970 00:49:57,066 --> 00:50:00,366 -I think this is a moment for not only the public 971 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:02,066 to rediscover him, but for art historians 972 00:50:02,100 --> 00:50:05,266 to really rethink him. 973 00:50:05,300 --> 00:50:07,333 -I think we've moved beyond 974 00:50:07,366 --> 00:50:10,766 the easy opposition of realism and abstraction 975 00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:14,433 which I think was the story back in the 1960s. 976 00:50:14,466 --> 00:50:16,666 And I think it's now possible to see him 977 00:50:16,700 --> 00:50:19,266 as just a different way of being modern. 978 00:50:19,300 --> 00:50:25,066 ♪♪ 979 00:50:25,100 --> 00:50:27,933 -He painted his own backyard. 980 00:50:27,966 --> 00:50:32,233 When you paint what you know and what you know with truth, 981 00:50:32,266 --> 00:50:35,200 that love is universal. 982 00:50:35,233 --> 00:50:38,500 -Wyeth's pictures always capture people. 983 00:50:38,533 --> 00:50:42,800 They stare at them and just roam around in them. 984 00:50:42,833 --> 00:50:45,533 When we did the exhibition at the museum, 985 00:50:45,566 --> 00:50:47,866 it actually was not unusual to find people in tears 986 00:50:47,900 --> 00:50:49,466 in front of the paintings, 987 00:50:49,500 --> 00:50:53,366 and paintings that weren't overtly sad. 988 00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:56,266 It opened up memories in people, 989 00:50:56,300 --> 00:50:58,933 and I think that's one of the powers in his work, 990 00:50:58,966 --> 00:51:02,466 is that the emotion that he banks into the picture 991 00:51:02,500 --> 00:51:06,033 allows people to unlock emotion of their own. 992 00:51:06,066 --> 00:51:10,500 ♪♪ 993 00:51:10,533 --> 00:51:15,133 -If you look at the light on the corner of the wall 994 00:51:15,166 --> 00:51:18,800 in the window in "Groundhog Day," 995 00:51:18,833 --> 00:51:22,733 there is nothing, anywhere, written 996 00:51:22,766 --> 00:51:26,066 in the history of art, about art -- 997 00:51:26,100 --> 00:51:28,900 no words compare to what he did. 998 00:51:28,933 --> 00:51:32,433 ♪♪ 999 00:51:32,466 --> 00:51:37,533 That sunlight traveled eight minutes from the sun, 1000 00:51:37,566 --> 00:51:40,800 came through the atmosphere, 1001 00:51:40,833 --> 00:51:42,300 through that window, 1002 00:51:42,333 --> 00:51:45,100 and struck the side of that window frame 1003 00:51:45,133 --> 00:51:46,933 and that wall. 1004 00:51:46,966 --> 00:51:49,566 ♪♪ 1005 00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,033 And he got it. 1006 00:51:52,066 --> 00:52:00,600 ♪♪ 1007 00:52:00,900 --> 00:52:10,066 ♪♪ 1008 00:52:10,100 --> 00:52:19,466 ♪♪ 1009 00:52:19,500 --> 00:52:23,800 ♪♪ 1010 00:52:27,066 --> 00:52:32,766 ♪♪ 1011 00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:35,500 Narrator: "Wyeth" is available on DVD. 1012 00:52:35,533 --> 00:52:38,300 To order, visit shop.pbs.org. 1013 00:52:38,333 --> 00:52:41,566 Or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1014 00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:44,900 This program is also available for download on iTunes. 1015 00:52:44,933 --> 00:52:53,200 ♪♪ 1016 00:52:53,233 --> 00:52:55,833 Listen to the American Masters Podcast 1017 00:52:55,866 --> 00:52:58,600 at pbs.org/americanmasters, 1018 00:52:58,633 --> 00:53:00,733 featuring a blend of original interviews 1019 00:53:00,766 --> 00:53:02,466 and selections from our archive. 1020 00:53:02,500 --> 00:53:03,933 Subscribe now. 1021 00:53:03,966 --> 00:53:12,433 ♪♪ 1022 00:53:12,466 --> 00:53:20,933 ♪♪ 1023 00:53:22,300 --> 00:53:23,933 ♪♪