WYETH Directed by Glenn Holsten Produced by Chayne Gregg WYETH TO PREMIERE AS PART OF AMERICAN MASTERS “ARTISTS FLIGHT” SERIES ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 10:00 P.M. ON PBS (check local listings) Streaming September 8 on pbs.org/americanmasters and on PBS apps Digital HD September 8 and on DVD September 11 via PBS Distribution MEDIA ONLY: For further information and photos, visit: https://www.thirteen.org/13pressroom/press-release/american-masters-wyeth/ Trailer & more: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/wyeth/10443/ WYETH : SYNOPSIS The life of Andrew Wyeth in bold strokes. WYETH tells the story of one of America’s most popular, but least understood, artists — Andrew Wyeth. Son of the famous illustrator N.C. Wyeth, Andrew had his first exhibition at age 20, and his painting “Christina’s World” was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1948. While Wyeth’s exhibitions routinely broke attendance records, art world critics continually assaulted his work. Detailing the stunning drawings and powerful portraits he created in Chadds Ford, Pa. and on the coast of Cushing, Maine, WYETH explores his inspirations, including neighbor Christina Olsen and his hidden muse, the German model Helga Testorf, who he painted secretly for 15 years. Through unprecedented access to Wyeth’s family members, including sons Jamie and Nicholas Wyeth, and never-before-seen archival materials from the family’s personal collection and hundreds of Wyeth’s studies, drawings and paintings, American Masters presents the most complete portrait of the artist yet — bearing witness to a legacy just at the moment it is evolving. WYETH : DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Like many, I grew up knowing only of “Christina’s World” — the haunting painting of a young woman crawling up a hill towards a house. I purchased a postcard of the painting when I visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC as a teenager and carried it with me for years — it even hung on my bulletin board in my college dorm room for a while. I know I am not alone when I say that something about the painting spoke to me that was quite visceral, but difficult to articulate. Fast forward to me as a young filmmaker in the mid-1990s, when I was contacted by painter Bo Bartlett to help him create a documentary film about Andrew Wyeth. The film, titled Snow Hill (after one of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings), was commissioned by the artist’s wife, Betsy Wyeth. Betsy Wyeth was the force behind much of the storytelling about Andrew Wyeth that was created during his lifetime. Working on Snow Hill was my first introduction to Wyeth’s world. I journeyed with Bo to Chadds Ford many times. I met Andrew Wyeth (briefly) and went to meetings with Betsy Wyeth in the one-room schoolhouse that she had transformed into her office. At night, I sifted through his father N.C. Wyeth’s letters, and helped Bo shape a script for the film. It was all very thrilling. “Snow Hill” does a beautiful job of seeing Wyeth’s world through Andrew Wyeth’s eyes. In truth (thanks to his business manager wife, Betsy Wyeth), Andrew Wyeth’s life has been well documented. There have been dozens of books and museum catalogs written about him over a span of decades. He painted from his teens in the 1920s until shortly before his death at 92 in 2009. That’s a lot of living, and a lot of painting. However, with the exception of Snow Hill , which was made while Andrew Wyeth was alive, there has not yet been a film that took stock of the totality of his life. WYETH is the first documentary that explores the full scope of Andrew Wyeth’s life and artistic method — not only showcasing his amazing body of work, but detailing his approach to art making: how he would immerse himself in worlds connected to, but far different from, his own, including the Kuerner family and the African American community in his Chadds Ford neighborhood, or the Olson family in Maine. Throughout his life, he confidently painted his world — the people and places he knew in Pennsylvania and Maine — despite the dramatic evolution of the art world that shunned him. In 2002 I made a film about another great Philadelphia painter, Thomas Eakins, who pursued his goals in art and life with unswerving determination. I admired Eakins’ passionate pursuit of truth in painting, and in Andrew Wyeth I recognized that same flame. In capturing images to tell this story, director of photography Phil Bradshaw and I needed only to look to the work for inspiration. WYETH captures the painter’s world with sweeping, panoramic views of the Brandywine River Valley that echo Wyeth’s own cinematic approaches to picture making: extreme low angles, detailed shots of the woods in which he walked and dreamed as a child; gentle dolly and crane shots that move through the interior and exterior spaces that Wyeth experienced, imitating his sense of exploration and revealing his camera-like eye. We were most inspired, however, by Wyeth’s mastery of light. Windows appear in all of our interviews, our graphics genius Jason Harmon created window light effects on our archival materials (if you look closely, you will detect window frame shadows subtly passing over newspaper headlines). All of these choices build a film world that is both delicate and strong, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s work. I am immensely grateful to visionaries at The Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford and the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, who had the foresight to preserve and maintain the places of significance in Andrew Wyeth’s life. In addition to wonderful storytellers — sons Jamie and Nicholas Wyeth, friend and colleague Mary Landa, muse and model Helga Testorf, art historians and curators — we had access to key places that made up the artist’s world, including the N.C. Wyeth House and Studio, the Andrew Wyeth Studio, the Kuerner Farm — a 33-acre property that inspired much of his work over decades, and in which many of the Helga paintings were created — and the Olson House in Cushing, Maine, the site of the famous “Christina’s World.” Filming in these locations was like stepping into art history. In post-production, producer Chayne Gregg and I worked closely with editor Vic Carreno and composer Michael Aharon to shape a story that was revealed layer by layer, much in the way Andrew Wyeth created his exquisite master paintings – meticulous study followed by layer upon layer of tempera. I made this film in hopes that audiences would discover the depth and richness in an artist that they thought they knew, but perhaps never really took the time to understand. DIRECTOR GLENN HOLSTEN ANDREW WYETH BIOGRAPHY ANDREW WYETH BIOGRAPHY I’m just appalled and amazed at the way in which people are interested in my paintings. I think it’s because I happen to paint things that reflect the basic truths of life: sky, earth, friends, the intimate things. People are drawn to my work by common feelings that go beyond art. A.W. quoted in Time magazine, February 24, 1967 American painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) spent his entire life in his birthplace of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his summer home in mid-coast Maine, rarely venturing beyond these two regions. His seven-decade career was spent painting the land and people that he knew and cared about. Throughout his career, Wyeth steadfastly followed his own vision of representational art. Careful observation reveals that while the works depict realistic imagery, the artist made skillful choices to convey his own version of place, of story and of emotion. Not tempted by the parallel rise of abstract expressionism, Wyeth has received both great success and sharp criticism. The artist’s 1948 tempera “Christina’s World” is one the best-known American paintings of the 20 th century. The artist’s legacy is preserved by his wife, Betsy James Wyeth, their sons Nicholas, an art dealer, and Jamie, also a painter, and Nicholas’s daughter, Victoria. Research for the artist’s catalogue raisonné is ongoing with up-to-date information announced at www.andrewwyeth.com . ANDREW WYETH CHRONOLOGY 1917 Born July 12 in home of his parents, Chadds Ford, PA. Mother was Carolyn Brenneman Bockius. Father was Newell Convers (N.C.) Wyeth, a distinguished illustrator. Wyeth is the last of five siblings - Henriette (born 1907), Carolyn (born 1909), Nathaniel (born 1911), and Ann (born 1915). 1920s The family spends each summer in Maine, eventually purchasing a property in Port Clyde. 1923-29 Educated at home by tutors. 1932 Accepted into his father’s studio as an apprentice. Two of N.C.’s other students, John McCoy and Peter Hurd, will eventually marry Ann and Henriette. 1933 Began painting and drawing at the Kuerner property in Chadds Ford. 1934 Andrew and his father being experimenting with tempera painting, encouraged by Peter Hurd, the artist married to Andrew’s sister Henriette. 1935 Work by the Wyeth Family , Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania, March 25 – April 19. The artist’s father N.C. and sisters Henriette and Carolyn also represented the family here. 1937 First one-man exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York at age 20. All paintings were sold. 1939 Watercolors by Andrew Wyeth , Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, April. The artist’s first solo exhibition at a museum. Met Betsy Merle James, who in turn introduced him to model Christina Olson, July. 1940 Married Betsy James in her hometown of East Aurora, NY. The two settle in Chadds Ford and continue to spend summers in Maine.