Customer Reviews

Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth (A Whitney Museum of American Art book)

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When you view the work of an artist, who is to be the arbiter of what, in this case the painting is about, what it means? Do you turn to the Professional Art Critic, Art History Majors, you the viewer, or the man or woman who created the work? In this case the Artist is well and painting, and his thoughts about his work are many and well documented.

This book on the paintings of Andrew Wyeth focuses primarily on the media of watercolor and drybrush as opposed to the egg tempera paintings that are the medium for so many of his most famous works. Mr. Wyeth takes up to 6 months for a tempera work, and completes as few as 2-4 a year. The images in this book are produced by the hundreds, and over his career amount to literally thousands of images. This book discusses and publishes many images that have never been publicly shown, and uses this body of work to advance various ideas.

The book is a valuable addition to those who are admirers of his work, the opinions that are expressed by people other than the artist, are either critical to the book on one extreme, or mostly ridiculous from where I sit.

Andrew Wyeth has been a target for the self-proclaimed tastemakers of Art for one reason; his art is widely admired, collected, and highly valued. These elements automatically qualify him for criticism that is so absurd; it adds a comedic aspect to the text. Then there are those who do love his work but feel they must demonstrate that, yes, he is what the critics say he is not, and even more!

The text did help me understand more about the method by which Mr. Wyeth creates these works, and the role they sometimes play in a major tempera piece. I loved his work before this book, and will continue to regardless of what "they" have to say. The only individual whose comments matter are Mr. Wyeth's. His thoughts are documented; I don't see the need for others to presume they know better than he what he paints, and what his intent was when he created the work.

The book is great for the new images it brings to the public. Everything about the construction of the book is as good as you will find in a commercial publication, and the color plates are excellent. As to the text, that is left for you to decide, I am placing the stars above for the Artist and his work, not for what others have to say about it.

The staff of the Whitney Museum for a 1998 Wyeth exhibition compiled this beautifully printed and bound book. The stock is heavy and glossy and the colors sharp and clear. Many watercolors included have not been publicly seen for years, as many private collectors contributed their paintings for this exhibition. The dates of the compositions range from the early 30's through the late 90's.

The two most recognized American artists of the 20th Century are Andys-Wyeth and Warhol, and they have more in common than their initials. Both are controversial and neither is as "realistic" as accused and/or categorized.

My enjoyment of Andrew Wyeth was never diminished by the fact that I had a lot of company. Popularity does not necessarily mean inferiority in spite of what the self-consuming art world tells us. True, you have to have a certain fondness for bleak settings to properly take pleasure in most of the paintings. I often idly wondered if Wyeth ever painted landscapes in spring or summer and why he was so enamored of bare earth and beige and brown compositions. I have never seen as many abstracts as are contained in this book.

The essays in the book are interesting, but not so prevalent as to overshadow the marvelous prints. My only complaint is the book is an unhandy shape, longer than it is tall, making it difficult to shelve. However, this is minor. Many hours of viewing pleasure are in store.

A collection containing a number of stunning watercolors loosely executed, rarely included in a book of Wyeth's works. Also includes many of his more labored tempera paintings.

This beautiful showcase of Andrew Wyeth's art differs from other books on the artist in two main respects. First, it concentrates specifically on his landscape art, as opposed to his portraits and figurative paintings (although a few of the works do contain figures within the landscape--Christina's World, for example). Secondly, it places emphasis on his heretofore largely unknown work in watercolor. The meticulously crafted tempera paintings for which Wyeth is famous are also well represented here, but intermingled with the more vigorous, slapdash watercolors, allowing you to compare and contrast the two styles. The two bodies of work are quite different in tone and execution, yet Wyeth's exceptional talent for expressing the structural beauty and textural randomness of nature is equally evident in both media.

The brief text of the book is neither good nor bad. Curator Beth Venn's essay gives some valuable insight into Wyeth's working methods in watercolor. The other two essays offer mostly critical analysis, discussing whether Wyeth is a realist or abstractionist, a modernist or a traditionalist. Other than offering a few choice quotes from the artist himself, they don't really tell you much of anything you can't figure out just by looking at the images. The uncomfortable typographic design of the book makes reading the text literally painful, so you may want to avoid the words altogether and just feast your eyes on the 150+ color plates of Wyeth's magnificent work. The images are beautifully reproduced in vivid detail and brilliant color.

Admirers of Wyeth's art will never get tired of browsing through this book. For those artistically inclined, a little time spent paging through this gallery of images will make you want to grab your paints and head out for the nearest wilderness.

I just want to add the comment that this has been one of the most useful books in my library to me for studying watercolors. I see the price has really held up on this one. I picked it up when it was a remainder, and it has only increased in value over the years.

Published to accompany the exhibition "Unknown Territory: The Landscape of Andrew Wyeth" organised by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1998, following the introduction two essays discusses the critical appraisal of the artist, his approach to his work and his painting methods; the easy are illustrated throughout in colour and black and white. The catalogue of work runs from pages 51 to 199. The book concludes with a further essay which includes a number of comments by the artist. There is also a list of works included in the exhibition but no bibliography.

In total there are approaching 200 illustrations, with the vast majority being in full colour, although the restrained nature of Wyeth's palette does not make this immediately apparent even in the main section of plates. The landscape format of the book accommodates well the predominantly similarly proportioned paintings and drawings, however sometimes the image is reproduced rather small relative to the page size.

A very useful publication which well demonstrates the range of the artist's output even with the designation of landscape.