美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Fascinating And Also A Little Bit Uncomfortable': Andrew Wyeth At 100

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

2017 marked a hundred years since Andrew Wyeth was born. His "Christina's World" is one of the most iconic American paintings of all time, right alongside "Whistler's Mother" and Grant Wood's "American Gothic." Karen Michel reports that the centennial is an occasion to reassess the artist's work.

KAREN MICHEL, BYLINE¹: In 1977, nearly 30 years after "Christina's World" was painted, art critic Robert Rosenblum was asked to name the most overrated and the most underrated artists. He put Andrew Wyeth in both categories.

MICHAEL KOMANECKY: Robert Rosenblum's comment is accurate to a degree but also simplistic.

MICHEL: Michael Komanecky, chief curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, is often asked to weigh in on Wyeth.

KOMANECKY: Andy has been described to me as, oh, the critics treat him so badly. Well, it's not at all true. He enjoyed a tremendous critical reputation for decades.

MICHEL: Though not so much anymore, in part because of Wyeth's tremendous commercial success. The Farnsworth has an entire center devoted² to the work of Andrew Wyeth, his father N.C. and Andrew's son, Jamie. The museum's collection of Andrew's work shows a range that's broader than the seemingly literal realism of his familiar paintings, with their fine brushwork, muted palette and depictions of his rural neighbors. Here, there are watercolors of coastlines with energetic, impressionistic brushstrokes and a bright palette. These are surprises, which curator Komanecky says is the point.

KOMANECKY: What do you say about Andrew Wyeth at 100? Well, he had many great moments in a long career. He is, in my estimation and that of many other people, he's one of America's great craftsmen³. This man could draw.

MICHEL: Unlike his contemporaries, Andrew Wyeth didn't see the work of grand masters in museums at home or abroad and never studied in New York. Wyeth was home-schooled by his illustrator father in Pennsylvania, and he painted the people he knew there and his neighbors in Maine where he later had a home. But the artist's familiarity with his subjects didn't make for warm and fuzzy images. They're cold, distant. Viewer and artist become complicit voyeurs⁴. Museum of Modern Art curator Laura Hoptman finds the effect creepy.

LAURA HOPTMAN: It makes you uneasy. I mean, for some particular reason, there's a kind of niggling perfection that is both fascinating and also a little bit uncomfortable. But at this thing, he was the best at it. He was truly a master.

MICHEL: It's at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art than Andrew Wyeth's most famous work is on view, not in a gallery with other works but in a hallway beside a bank of escalators. Still, "Christina's World" has become a sort of pilgrimage site for fans, like Richard Burrow⁵ from Roanoke, Va.

RICHARD BURROW: I've seen many, many pictures of this painting, but I've never seen the actual original.

MICHEL: The rural scene depicts⁶ a field, an awkward woman in a pink dress propped⁷ up on spindly arms, seen from behind gazing at a house and barn in the distance.

BURROW: I think she's thinking about leaving and taking a long look back at home and the life that she is leaving. I don't know if that's what the artist had in mind or not (laughter). But it's always been sort of how I felt about it. She's torn about whether to go or stay.

MICHEL: The woman was Anna Christina Olson. She was physically⁸ disabled, and Wyeth had seen her crawling across a field. MoMA's Laura Hoptman, using Wyeth's word for Olson's disability, says the artist was clear about what he wanted to show.

HOPTMAN: The Museum of Modern Art, when we buy work by a living artist, we send the living artist a questionnaire, and we sent Wyeth one. And he was very forthright⁹ about the fact that he was painting a person who was horrifically crippled, I think he said, but that he wanted to make sure that this was not a painting specifically about a crippled person - that it was a painting about - in a way about aspiration¹⁰.

MICHEL: The Museum of Modern Art acquired "Christina's World" in 1948 for what was then a huge sum - $1,800. Farnsworth Art Museum curator Michael Komanecky says Wyeth was creating something different from his peers.

KOMANECKY: Andrew Wyeth painted "Christina's World," and it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. Within 12 months of that acquisition, there is an August issue of LIFE magazine with Jackson Pollock on the cover, and the feature story is, is Jackson Pollock America's greatest living painter? Within 12 months, those two works of art represent the absolute polar opposites of what is happening in American art at that moment.

MICHEL: And maybe that's why "Christina's World" is hanging in a hallway instead of around the corner in a gallery with the Pollocks. For NPR News, I'm Karen Michel.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

4 voyeurs   

n.窥淫癖者（喜欢窥视他人性行为）( voyeur的名词复数 )；刺探隐秘者（喜欢刺探他人的问题或私生活）

参考例句：

• Voyeurs are scary, but they are usually harmless. 偷窥狂很可怕，但是他们通常不会伤害人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He also did much to turn Britons into a nation of voyeurs. 他的所作所为很大程度上激起了英国人的偷窥欲。 来自互联网

5 burrow   

vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞

参考例句：

• Earthworms burrow deep into the subsoil.蚯蚓深深地钻进底土。
• The dog had chased a rabbit into its burrow.狗把兔子追进了洞穴。

6 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

7 propped   

支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
• This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

9 forthright   

adj.直率的，直截了当的 [同]frank

参考例句：

• It's sometimes difficult to be forthright and not give offence.又直率又不得罪人，这有时很难办到。
• He told me forthright just why he refused to take my side.他直率地告诉我他不肯站在我这一边的原因。

10 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。