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Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: A Conversation with Andrew Wyeth [ILLUSTRATED]
In this intimate and profound portrait, the former Metropolitan Museum director elicits extended and revealing dialogue from the artist, revealing the philosophy and spirit of his art
- GenresArtNonfiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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86 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Hoving
66 books21 followersThomas Pearsall Field Hoving was an American museum executive and consultant, best known for serving as the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
His books primarily focus on art-related subjects, including art forgeries, Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Tutankhamen, and the 12th-century walrus ivory crucifix known as the Bury St. Edmunds Cross. His memoir, Making the Mummies Dance, details his years at the Met.
His books primarily focus on art-related subjects, including art forgeries, Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Tutankhamen, and the 12th-century walrus ivory crucifix known as the Bury St. Edmunds Cross. His memoir, Making the Mummies Dance, details his years at the Met.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 30, 2015
It's a funny thing, but I had this book for many years and never read the text. I'm a long-time Wyeth fan and bought the book for the images.
Anyway, I pulled it off the shelf this spring and started to read the text, and suddenly realized that this book was a companion publication for his 1976-7 exhibit at the Met in New York. I went to this show in late 1976 and was completely blown away by his work. I was in high school and had only been painting for four years, but seeing Christina's World, and the portrait of Karl Keurner was a truly transformative experience for me. I knew that no matter what my parents, counselors, etc., might say, I knew I had to keep a connection to my creativity - and thankfully I have. I owe a lot to Wyeth and this exhibit.
Interspersed with images of Wyeth's paintings and drawings is a lengthy interview with Met director Thomas Hoving. Conducted over five days, Hoving and Wyeth dove deep into the work created at Keurner's and Olson's. If you are a fan of Wyeth, or just a lover of art and creativity, there is much in this book worth reading.
Recommended for artists and art lovers.
Anyway, I pulled it off the shelf this spring and started to read the text, and suddenly realized that this book was a companion publication for his 1976-7 exhibit at the Met in New York. I went to this show in late 1976 and was completely blown away by his work. I was in high school and had only been painting for four years, but seeing Christina's World, and the portrait of Karl Keurner was a truly transformative experience for me. I knew that no matter what my parents, counselors, etc., might say, I knew I had to keep a connection to my creativity - and thankfully I have. I owe a lot to Wyeth and this exhibit.
Interspersed with images of Wyeth's paintings and drawings is a lengthy interview with Met director Thomas Hoving. Conducted over five days, Hoving and Wyeth dove deep into the work created at Keurner's and Olson's. If you are a fan of Wyeth, or just a lover of art and creativity, there is much in this book worth reading.
Recommended for artists and art lovers.
February 11, 2021
Accidentally deleted this review! Drat drat drat. What did I say? I'm going to have to summarize.
This book is written in the form of an interview -so you get the words of the man himself, and this made me even more of an admirer of his work. Wyeth spent a large part of his career painting 2 different properties - the homes and buildings there, and the people who inhabited them. He had no need for new places to paint because he never exhausted the potential of what was right on front of him.
"I'm not much for the new thing or the new object. I like to go back again and again because I always think you can find new things. There are always new emotions in going back to something that I know very well."
The Kuerners in Pennsylvania and the Olsons in Maine allowed Wyeth free access to their properties and even to a degree, their homes. He wandered all over, painting everything that caught his attention. It is fascinating to hear what he says about his thoughts while working through a painting - he was very aware of the sounds around him, of the history of things, often the objects - pails, baskets, etc. were things that had personal significance to him because of the people who used them and the beauty of the task they performed.
He describes people like landscapes and places, and vice versa - as if in his eyes the two merge, or reflect or hold each other in some mysterious way. So that what in some ways seems like a coldness or distance, was for him exactly the opposite. He was intensely, personally invested. He cared deeply about the people and the places. The place was like the person and the person like the place.
"A child, a new-born child, is alien for a while, but finally the environment it lives in changes it, doesn't it? In a sense these things are bathed in the light of not just an hour or day, but countless hours and hundreds of days. My light is not linked to a specific time. Unlike Claude Monet, or some of the other Impressionists, I don't paint a picture with the light of eleven o'clock and then twelve o'clock and then three o'clock. I think the camera is the master of that. I am fascinated by the changing, changing, changing quality of the sky. I would like to try to paint so nothing is at rest in my work. Nothing is frozen. I would like people to sense even in those paintings with brilliant passages of sunlight, that the sun is not really still but that you can really see the passage of the sun."
How often do you get to hear about the thought and work behind a painting you love from the painter himself?"? A wonderful book.
This book is written in the form of an interview -so you get the words of the man himself, and this made me even more of an admirer of his work. Wyeth spent a large part of his career painting 2 different properties - the homes and buildings there, and the people who inhabited them. He had no need for new places to paint because he never exhausted the potential of what was right on front of him.
"I'm not much for the new thing or the new object. I like to go back again and again because I always think you can find new things. There are always new emotions in going back to something that I know very well."
The Kuerners in Pennsylvania and the Olsons in Maine allowed Wyeth free access to their properties and even to a degree, their homes. He wandered all over, painting everything that caught his attention. It is fascinating to hear what he says about his thoughts while working through a painting - he was very aware of the sounds around him, of the history of things, often the objects - pails, baskets, etc. were things that had personal significance to him because of the people who used them and the beauty of the task they performed.
He describes people like landscapes and places, and vice versa - as if in his eyes the two merge, or reflect or hold each other in some mysterious way. So that what in some ways seems like a coldness or distance, was for him exactly the opposite. He was intensely, personally invested. He cared deeply about the people and the places. The place was like the person and the person like the place.
"A child, a new-born child, is alien for a while, but finally the environment it lives in changes it, doesn't it? In a sense these things are bathed in the light of not just an hour or day, but countless hours and hundreds of days. My light is not linked to a specific time. Unlike Claude Monet, or some of the other Impressionists, I don't paint a picture with the light of eleven o'clock and then twelve o'clock and then three o'clock. I think the camera is the master of that. I am fascinated by the changing, changing, changing quality of the sky. I would like to try to paint so nothing is at rest in my work. Nothing is frozen. I would like people to sense even in those paintings with brilliant passages of sunlight, that the sun is not really still but that you can really see the passage of the sun."
How often do you get to hear about the thought and work behind a painting you love from the painter himself?"? A wonderful book.
February 11, 2021
Very nice reproductions of many paintings. Interesting background on his artistic process.
July 11, 2018
Lovely exhibition book with many pictures, but is supplemented with a thoughtful interview by Thomas Hoving. Wyeth talks frankly about his artistic process, his inspirations, and those people who he painted (who he loves).
January 8, 2010
An extended interview with my favorite artist of all times. Learned a thing or two, technique-wise and philosophically, to further my own artistic experience.
April 29, 2024
I really unintentionally bought and read this book. I was working on a watercolor for a class, and my professor had me referencing Andrew Wyeth a lot for the handling of my trees. I began to read the book, but my professor is retiring so I knew I had to buy the book if I wanted to continue to read. It was so fascinating because it was a conversation between Wyeth and an art historian. It was purely Wyeth’s thoughts and experiences with painting. I will certainly be referencing it again to hear, rather than just see, how he would handle certain passages in future paintings of mine.
April 19, 2025
I first heard about Andrew Wyeth on an episode of the Decoder Ring podcast, though I’d seen his most famous work “Christina’s World” over the years. I enjoyed hearing directly from him in this book side by side with his paintings and studies. A useful intro.
October 5, 2017
I've looked at all of the art and read none of the text.
June 4, 2019
Excellent images, interviewer is an art insider so perhaps not a good entry point for Wyeth's work.
May 28, 2020
Conversation with Thomas Hoving (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY)
December 10, 2013
I am halfway through this book, and love the questions Thomas Hoving asks Andrew Wyeth, and I love Mr. Wyeth's answers. I have re-read passages from this book over and over because they impacted me so much. Andrew Wyeth has validated some things that had bothered me about my artistic process: the many sketches and studies it takes me to develop an elusive thought, the time an idea sits in my mind gathering essence before being painted, the satisfactory moment when an emotion or memory has lodged itself in the painting. I feel more courageous about proceeding with my art, and better appreciate Andrew Wyeth's process, while reading this book and looking over the many preparatory sketches for the artworks being discussed. I strongly recommend this book, and I can't wait to hug the person who gifted it to me!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews