BBC Michael Palin in Wyeth´s World

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

The documentary explores the life and work of artist Andrew Wyeth, known for his unique style and evocative paintings, particularly his masterpiece "Christina's World." Set in both Maine and Pennsylvania, the movie chronicles Wyeth's career, his inspirations, and his family's influence. It highlights the enigmatic connections he had with his subjects like Christina and Helga, and delves into the scandal surrounding the latter. The film provides insights into Wyeth's artistic techniques, familial relationships, and his enduring impact on American art.

Highlights

Andrew Wyeth was inspired by the landscapes and people of Maine and Pennsylvania, resulting in a prolific career 🎨.
"Christina's World" remains one of his most famous paintings, capturing emotion and mystery in rural America 🌾.
Despite being controversial, his Helga series revealed a personal and secretive side of Wyeth, adding intrigue to his legacy 🔍.
Wyeth utilized a rare painting technique, egg tempera, which contributed to his distinct artistic style 🎨.
His family life, including the influence of his wife Betsy, shaped much of his life and career, highlighting the blend of personal and professional worlds ❤️.

Key Takeaways

Andrew Wyeth's work beautifully captures the rural American landscape, offering a mix of reality and fantasy 🎨.
The documentary highlights how Wyeth's personal experiences and relationships deeply influenced his art and choice of subjects 🌟.
His painting technique, using egg tempera, was both unique and demanding, allowing him to create meticulous art pieces 🎨.
The Helga paintings stirred one of the biggest scandals in American art, showcasing the depth of Wyeth's secretive body of work 🔍.
Wyeth's life and art are a testament to finding profound inspiration in one's own life and surroundings, creating a world of mystique and allure ✨.

Overview

Andrew Wyeth's art is a reflection of the rural American experience, blending reality with artistic fantasy. His famous painting "Christina's World" epitomizes this synthesis, capturing a profound, almost enigmatic connection with his subjects. The documentary takes us through the picturesque landscapes of Maine and Pennsylvania, the vibrant canvases of Wyeth's creations.

Wyeth's choice of subjects, like Christina and later Helga, reveals the intimate and sometimes secretive nature of his work. His penchant for using egg tempera shows his dedication to craft and technique, while often painting subjects that resonate with emotional depth and intrigue. Wyeth's world is a canvas of mystique and allure, painting not just landscapes, but the human emotions intertwined within them.

The scandal surrounding the Helga paintings offers insight into Wyeth's personal life and the complexities therein. Despite the controversies, these works showcased a different dimension of his art, which was both intimate and expansive. This dedication to capturing the intricacies of human life and emotion solidified Wyeth's place in American art history, making his backyard a window to universal themes.

Chapters

00:00 - 02:00: Exploring Maine and Andrew Wyeth's Influence The chapter explores Maine as a quintessential holiday destination for affluent New Englanders looking to escape summer heat and humidity. During the peak season from July to September, these sparsely populated coastal towns become bustling with well-to-do vacationers.
02:00 - 05:00: Introduction to Christina's World and the Olson House The chapter introduces the contrasting side of Maine, characterized by the hard-working lives of its people on land and sea. This rugged existence inspired artist Andrew Wyeth, whose penetrating gaze and extraordinary career immortalized the American landscape. Wyeth's work is known for creating interior worlds filled with mysteries and intrigue.
05:00 - 12:00: Wyeth's Artistic Beginnings and Family Influence The chapter delves into the early life of the renowned artist Andrew Wyeth, highlighting how his family's influence and his experiences at a rural farmstead in Maine shaped his artistic vision. Despite initial resistance from the art world, Wyeth's work gained immense popularity among the American public. The chapter specifically focuses on his iconic 1948 painting, which has perplexed and captivated audiences for decades, marking a significant milestone in American art history.
12:00 - 22:00: The Kuerner Farm: Source of Inspiration The chapter titled 'The Kuerner Farm: Source of Inspiration' delves into Andrew Wyeth's famous painting, 'Christina's World'. It highlights the intriguing nature of the painting's subject, a woman Wyeth referred to as a 'wounded G', perhaps implying a complex emotional or physical state. This chapter reflects on the inspiration drawn from the Kuerner Farm, likely a significant backdrop or influence in Wyeth's work.
22:00 - 41:00: The Helga Testorf Scandal The chapter delves into the significance of the 18th century farmhouse that served as the backdrop to Andrew Wyeth's painting 'Christina's World'. Now preserved as a state museum, the farm was originally owned by the Olsen family and has since become a pilgrimage site for many visitors seeking its spiritual ambiance. Janice Casper, a former tour guide, shares insights and guides the tour around the house, emphasizing its historical and cultural importance.
41:00 - 59:00: Later Life, Legacy, and Family Reflections The chapter discusses the later life of Andrew Wyth, a renowned painter, who began painting at a farm owned by Alvaro Olen and his sister Christina during the 1940s. The farm, lacking modern amenities like electricity until the 1950s, relied on rainwater collected from the roof. This reflection highlights the rustic and humble lifestyle that may have influenced Wyth's artistic legacy.

BBC Michael Palin in Wyeth´s World Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Music] this is Maine on America's Northeast Coast it's the perfect holiday destination for wealthy new englanders seeking to escape the heat and humidity of the summer months thank you between July and September each year these sparely populated coastal towns swell to capacity with handsome well-healed vacationers [Music]
00:30 - 01:00 but there's another side to Maine one where people graft hard for a living on land and sea aural rugged existence which fed the penetrating gaze of artist Andrew wyth and fueled his long and extraordinary career wyth not only immortalized the American landscape he created interior worlds hidden his Mysteries Intrigue and
01:00 - 01:30 Magic his unflinching vision didn't always please the art world but it captured the hearts and minds of the American people my exploration of wy's long life and prolific work begins here at this remote Farmstead it was this rural side of Maine that in 1948 inspired Andrew WTH to paint his Masterpiece a work that became an icon of American art and a pain painting which has puzzled and
01:30 - 02:00 intrigued me from the first time I saw it W's most famous painting was named after its subject a woman he once described as a wounded G the painting was called Christina's World [Music]
02:00 - 02:30 the backdrop to wy's painting of Christina's World is this 18th century Farmhouse now preserved as a state museum the farm once owned by the Olsen family has become a destination for modern pilgrims who want to experience the almost spiritual significance of this location Janice Casper once a tour guide here shows me around so here's the house and it's been here for quite a while and you could see it's uh
02:30 - 03:00 weather weathered yeah yeah when Andrew wyth first started to paint here during his family summer holidays in the 1940s the farm was owned and run by Alvaro Olen and his unmarried Sister Christina they lived without electricity into the 1950s they collected rain water off the roof was their water supply and
03:00 - 03:30 they lived off the land yeah so I want to show you something in this hallway and if we scoot down yeah this is Christina's refrigerator so that when I slide it open and if you can feel how cold it is and you can see the shell yeah yes and it's also a way to get down to check the sister Simple Technology yes yeah
03:30 - 04:00 Alvaro and Christina's handt mouth existence on the farm was not the only challenge they faced when Christina was a little girl her mother noticed that she fell a lot and then as she got older it got progressively worse she got her legs got weaker and then by the time I think that when she was in her 40s she pretty much lost the use of her legs and she was one of these tough proud stubborn women who uh refused to use can
04:00 - 04:30 or crutches or a wheelchair she was going to get around on her own ability and in this house I understand she would hitch herself around in a chair or she would crawl and outside she [Music] crawled Christina's disability meant that the upstairs floors of the house were out of her reach they were closed up and used for storage until Andrew WTH began began to use the rooms as
04:30 - 05:00 makeshift [Music] Studios there's one painting he made from up here which for me really captures the essence of the [Music] place when WTH prived up this window it hadn't been opened for years such was his attention to detail that he waited for 2 months for the wind to change in the right direction before completing
05:00 - 05:30 the painting it was also from up here that he first saw Christina dragging herself through the grass like as he put it a crab on a New England [Music] Shore this painting really is much less simple than you think at first sight I
05:30 - 06:00 mean I remember when I first saw it I thought that the figure in the foreground was a young girl and we know that um Christina here was in her mid-50s and she was a paraplegic and that's the way she moved through the grass you know when you understand it's not a purely realistic picture he's trying to express something through this picture you have to try and work out what it is he's expressing and from what I can see here is Christina looking up at the farm which she can never get away from
06:00 - 06:30 and there's something there sort of almost she's almost trapped it's almost like she won't get away despite this vast open space despite all the potential of it there's something quite dark going on there so is she trying to get away or is she trying to get back I don't know it's just it's a puzzle raises so many questions although Christina was an important Muse for wyth he also painted scenes in and around the Olsen farm for more than 30 Summers producing over 300
06:30 - 07:00 distinctive works when Christina Olen died in 1968 it closed an important chapter in W's career but by far the largest portion of his work was created in a very different landscape 500 miles south of here
07:00 - 07:30 Chad's Ford Pennsylvania W's permanent home from his birth in 1917 to his death in 2009 is a small town with a big place in American [Music] history these Meadows by the Brandy Wine River were once battlefields almost 223
07:30 - 08:00 years ago to the day British American soldiers fought each other here in the ward of Independence or the great Revolutionary War as the Brandy Wine reenactors prefer to call [Music] it have you ever had the pleasure of firing one of these no no no oh my friend great pleasure I can see you like it there's something Sparkle in your eye which makes me think that there's an element uh of well some danger there do
08:00 - 08:30 you have PA glasses just for safety sake just to be careful might be some stuff flying get you get powder that flashes up when the powder is ignited should meant to go that way well you know it will it will okay will this kick f um it shouldn't be that much of a kit cuz there isn't a bullet in it okay more please sorry sorry yeah sorry British got him running
08:30 - 09:00 you got him running how important was the battle was fought here in the Brandy Wine River oh the battle was I mean very important you have this is one the largest land Battle of the Revolution and you have the British over on this side over here uh and The Americans on this side now the landscape is not going to be very reflective of what it was in the 18th century you had a lot more concealment a lot more cover uh and in the morning hours it was just basic scattered musket shot going across River two the afterno
09:00 - 09:30 that's the British started Crossing and theier fighting took place locals say the river behind me ran red with the blood of dying and injured bodies of British and American officers but despite the setback at the Brandy Wine River the Americans went on to win their war against the British oppressors and claim this vast country as their own a country that W's father raised his son to always
09:30 - 10:00 feel proud to belong [Music] to Andrew wyth was born into a wealthy artistic family of Swiss German [Music] origin known as Andy he was the youngest of five children doubted on by his three older sisters particularly Anne his constant childhood
10:00 - 10:30 companion so what was it like you know for your mother and Andrew who were s of two years apart growing up in this house what was their relationship how did they well they were wonderful friends of course they slept in the same bed they played together uh and and as children they did everything together in the beginning I mean at at some point he I mean they drew there were always paper
10:30 - 11:00 but they played up in these woods they dressed up they played Robin Hood they played Knights they did all the things that Grandpa was painting the young Andrew's love of story book War and heroism was fed not only by the battle scarred history around him but also by his great influence and teacher is larger than life father newel conver WTH [Music]
11:00 - 11:30 known as NC or part to his family he was a celebrated artist sought after for his Dynamic picture book illustrations which brought history to [Music] life his work for scribers Classics had generations of readers Spellbound NC was so successful as a commercial artist he was able to build a grand family home construct a studio behind it and pay for the surrounding 18
11:30 - 12:00 acres of land with a commission for one single work Treasure Island you know he was so real to all of us it was always what P said what P did what he thought what I mean he created this world for us all he dressed up as old Chris close and he actually got up on the roof and he stamped around and he rang bells down
12:00 - 12:30 that chimney and woke them up and they came down to see him just out of the corner of their eye leaving there's something about this family that that I think is remarkable there a quality of joy in life of joy in everything and grandpa had that and my mother had that and she kept on with that and Andy had that it's just open into the box it's the ribbon it's just
12:30 - 13:00 Joy at life of of of just God isn't it [Music] great Andy's childhood was exciting and idilic but also dogged by ill health recurring chest infections and a problem with his hip which affected him throughout his life but neither of them seemed to temper his
13:00 - 13:30 inquisitive nature and boisterous Creative Energy and so he was kind of an ARA terba in a way you know I mean he was he was allowed you know he was precocious and he was not denied [Music] anything NC decided his youngest son was too fragile agile for public school so
13:30 - 14:00 Andy was tutored at home he was free to roam around his father's Studio where epic scenes of American heroism were being conjured up with the help of period costumes and historical regalia [Music]
14:00 - 14:30 NC wyth was an enormously successful commercial artist and yet all this didn't really matter to him he was determined to shape his gifted young son into the kind of Fine Art painter that he himself had never really become he wanted his son to be free both artistically and [Music] personally Andrew found heroism not in a costumed and constructed world like his father
14:30 - 15:00 but in the reality of everyday life his first show at the Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1937 was a sellout so impressed was his father that he proclaimed that his son Andrew was on the right track to reach the Pinnacle of American art so no pressure there
15:00 - 15:30 this is U an early self-portrait of Andrew painted just after he had a big success in New York with an exhibition he was 21 years old um I think it's quite interesting cuz uh he sort of projecting himself himself as a serious successful artist but at the same time there's something in the eyes kind of awarness of you know don't read me too easily there's something of a mystery there um and this was one of the first paintings that he painted in egg temperor he rejected um the oil paints
15:30 - 16:00 that his father NC WTH had brought him up to use and I can only think that that must have been deliberate that to try and escape from the shadow of his celebrated father um he chose different subjects but also different materials to paint those [Music] subjects the Brandy Wine River Museum housed is the largest collection of both
16:00 - 16:30 NC and Andrew W's work Joyce Stoner and her team a task with conserving the painting of both Father and Son the self-portrait that he did was that the first time he used egg temper oh yes he hits the ground running with the self-portrait and then the portrait of Walt Anderson and it's they're done so similarly and they were sort of Brothers Under the Skin at that time and was fascinated with Outsiders
16:30 - 17:00 and especially trickster pranksters he had to feel a special kinship and Walt Anderson who is pictured in young Swede is a wonderful example of this Walt is a trickster he is a lobster poacher apparently he and Andy would steal boats together and so they were PIR he loved anyone who was a pirate and so Walt was an original pirate and you you see how he paints Walt as this incredibly handsome young man that they did things
17:00 - 17:30 together and had fun and he loved it that he was a pirate and he was always breaking the rules Andrew WTH also bucked the trend when it came to his painting technique he chose to work in egg tempera a challenging medium Barely Used since the 16th century and so it started with someone picking up an egg and you're going to do what are you going to do I think you're going to do it how' you like it scramble boil well what we're going to do is
17:30 - 18:00 we're going to separate the egg yolk from the white so go ahead and break the egg okay there we go let the white fall into the jar y there we are and there's the yolk and now what pass it from hand to hand yeah and you can wipe your hands on that I've honestly never done this before ever ever oh I'm quite good at this actually oh no oh dear well there we are you see well that's why we one that's it I was getting overconfident W's decision to use egg
18:00 - 18:30 temper was bold not only did he need to mix paint from egg yolk and pigments every time he started but its quick drying properties Medi had to work fast and mix that up we now have pain okay why did they do that why did they discover that egg and pigment went together particularly well it it's actually a very good binder to hold pigments to a surface so a painting um we know that between the Middle Ages up until around 1900 it was the dominant
18:30 - 19:00 paint medium in Europe right so and we think about it especially with early Italian paintings of the early Masters J through M was it discovered in the Renaissance or or or it actually predates the Renaissance so if we think of late medieval paintings uh the earlier icons are all painted in egg Tempa he loved taking tempera where it shouldn't go and when people told him you couldn't paint temper at night uh that it wasn't a night medium he painted Walt Anderson again poaching lobsters and it's called night hauling and he pushed tempera to look like
19:00 - 19:30 night if you also look up close at the temperas and look at trod and weed up goes it looks like a micro Jackson Pollock it looks like a little explosion because he is doing things you're not supposed to do with temper so these are the Andrew WTH Galleries and they're changed periodically with wonderful things young sweet and this fabulous thing of his dog it looks like a railro and then oh here are all the different
19:30 - 20:00 ones he painted in Chad's SW Joyce there's a perception that when you look at W's work you're looking at the work of a realist or be it maybe a romantic realist and then you see a painting like this and that's almost abstract in the shapes and all that how did he see what he was doing and how did others see what he was doing oh well absolutely he was very aware of powerful shapes and forms if you look at the roof and the powerful beams coming out at you it's a and and the Shadows it's it's very powerful and
20:00 - 20:30 very spooky really juts out against the gray sky but next to it there's this sketch did he do preliminary sketches he often did preliminary sketches while he was working on conceptualizing what this sort of magic realism this spooky this chilly sense of death and so this is a wonderful comparison of the whoos with the precise and showing them right together this was this a watercolor yes
20:30 - 21:00 it's it's ink and watercolor you can just see it slightly more the the Grays are slightly lighter and the shadings on the bird slightly lighter here's a much Bolder blacker sort of exactly exactly here we see another version of The Two Worlds of Andrew wyth the free Splash and Dash of the watercolor and then the exactitude but they do work together as you can see him working out in his mind how to do this
21:00 - 21:30 was part of the reason that he chose to paint in Temper to distinguish himself from his father and his father's preference for oils absolutely Andrew had to Rebel from NC and so you can really look at how the media bounce around as they try to get out of each other's way and because there's tremendous love and tremendous competition in that family yes it was not just Andrew Wyatt's unique
21:30 - 22:00 painting style which helped him break away from his father's often overbearing influence it was also the love of a determined young woman whom he met in the summer of [Music] 1939 Betsy James was brought up in New England the daughter of a Welsh picture editor and a well-bred Christian mother with her striking looks she was a force to be reckoned
22:00 - 22:30 with despite NC's objections Andrew not one to [ __ ] foot around proposed to Betsy within weeks of meeting her she accepted Betsy was 18 and Andrew was 21 the marriage produced two boys niiki and Jamie and lasted 69 years until w death oh I was very fortunate to run
22:30 - 23:00 into her I didn't know I had that many brains so young we're different it's all not always peaceful but nothing good is peaceful remember that if you got too much peace God help you you have to have kicking the tail once in a while but we have a great time we don't have a dull moment I can tell you
23:00 - 23:30 that wanting to keep his young son close NC gifted the newlyweds a property near to the WTH family home the old schoolhouse became not only a home for his young family but also Andrew's first Studio of his own away from his father bets's influence over him increased as their son jimie remembers it was a painting a temper which was a medium
23:30 - 24:00 that he was just really starting with and it was just a figure walking away in a field and he was very excited about and asked his father to come see it and his father said Andy you know it's remarkable but you need to put a gun in its hand and you have to have dogs but completely missing what his son was doing yeah and Betsy who was probably 18 said don't listen to that old fart you do exactly what what you're doing
24:00 - 24:30 yeah pretty amazing so I mean with no knowledge of painting she got it she obviously adored his work and thought this is incredible what's being produced here this is a world that's extraordinary yeah yeah my father was very close to his father MH and his father was very close to him I mean just wanted to control him yeah young Betsy James was his Escape away from that but in a way he married his father I mean she became yes totally the one then
24:30 - 25:00 controlling but but gave him freedom to do exactly what he wanted but kept track of what was being painted what was and you know titles she titled everything did she so so really so Christina's World and to really he just painted and then showed it to her Betsy took every opportunity to promote a husband's wife work before long the marriage evolved into a
25:00 - 25:30 Business Partnership but the boundaries between family and work began to [Music] blur well I mean it wasn't that my father was going to work putting a tie on and whatnot it was just Steve would wander in from The Breakfast Table and and we would wander in as children lying on the floor here doing drawing but it was just this was our house and when you see some of these drawings here do they bring back memory do you know what they're all about yes when he was
25:30 - 26:00 working he would have drawings packed all over the wall all over the floor as you see their Footprints dog prints stepping on them I mean he would was to be completely immersed in what he was doing totally forgetting time and in fact he was a wild painter I mean water was thrown paint was all over the floor he liked accidents really really yeah that's interesting and then it's all gets filtered down to controll final produ starts to be distill that's interesting yeah he's a very peculiar
26:00 - 26:30 painter Andrew W I mean it's this funny aess crystalline World particularly in the temperas and it was a very strange peculiar World which I think makes this work [Music] extraordinary although WTH had an official Studio indoors his unofficial
26:30 - 27:00 outdoor Studio was the whole of Chad's Ford Andrew wyth painted uninterrupted for almost seven full decades one of the longest careers of any artist what he painted here at Chads Ford was confined in just a few square miles this small piece of territory and the people who occupied it revealed to WTH a world so deep and detailed that no matter how often he painted it he always discovered something new [Music]
27:00 - 27:30 but there was one location within Chad's Ford which would become more important to him than any other at the kerer farm WTH would produce hundreds of sketches and paintings over a period of 70 years [Music]
27:30 - 28:00 as with Christina and the Olen Farm the inspiration that wyth Drew from this one location was boundless he started painting it when he was 15 and stopped the year before he died he was fascinated not just by the farm and the landscape around it but also by the kerer family who lived here enigmatic Outsiders German immigrants he was fascinated by their connection with the tonic old world of his ancestors why was attracted to The rhythms of life here as well as to its
28:00 - 28:30 owners farmer Carl kerer his wife Anna and their children their son Carl junor remembers seeing WTH painting in and around the farm everybody liked and he would come early mornings we never knew he'd be up in the woods painting we'd be cutting along the field and we'd see Andy and say hello I said Andy I said stay away from the Hayfield I said we come with
28:30 - 29:00 our big cutter we cut your toes Off K Junior's father intrigued WTH not just because of his German ancestry but also his experience in battle as a machine gunner in the first world war my father he talked a lot about the first world war it gave Andy a lot of ideas and being in the trenches you know that uh Fierce fighting a lot of my
29:00 - 29:30 father lost a lot of his close friends and he said when you trenches you got to keep your head down to me it made him very Stern it's like working for a German officer you take the good with the bad Carl's Mother Anna was a continual source of Fascination for wath who portrayed her as a lost soul an almost
29:30 - 30:00 spectral figure my mother was very quiet conial I think she was homesick she wanted to take us children and all back to Germany my father said no you can't do that now he said we're here we have to make the best of it I understand that there was a WTH family tragedy here and you were working on the Farm close to
30:00 - 30:30 where it happened we were up there husk corn we heard this crash I thought an airplane come down or something a big noise big noise and I said all the Fells wait here I'll walk down see what happened Andrew W's father NC was driving his car with his four-year-old grandson in the back when tragedy struck on a railroad at the foot of kerner's farm [Music]
30:30 - 31:00 NC WTH and his young grandson were killed outright when the car in which they were traveling was hit by a train on this Railway line in October 1945 but no one knows the cause of the accident was it mechanical failure in the car was it the temporary heart attack was it do some people say that NC was sketching at the time the only thing we really know is
31:00 - 31:30 that we should never know we're coming to the location my father's where he was killed and that brought it to a head to me because it all this life that I had had by myself over here I didn't really tell anyone about it it all became the fact that he was killed here it all became very pointed to me in his meaning wasn't just because it was a handsome looking Hill or a
31:30 - 32:00 lovely old barn that that wasn't it at all it was just began became sort of a memory of everything to me that meant something to me so it all it made this whole place very poignant to me not just a farm but a certain truth gave me a reason to paint up to
32:00 - 32:30 that point I was painting but I think I was painting pictures then I became a real reason and urge to do something emotional reason I think it made [Music] me NC's accident was not the only tragedy wyth would associate with kerner's farm when Carl kerer was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1970s wyth charted his slow decline from
32:30 - 33:00 Warrior to wasted body the shadow of his own father's death always present something else had been happening at Ker's Farm during the years WTH was charting Carl's fading Health it all started when Andrew met the woman brought in to care for the sick Farmer on Hot Summer Afternoon she took to resting in the upstairs
33:00 - 33:30 attic which wyth had begun to use as one of his temporary Studios she was Prussian like the Kern as a German immigrant she was married with children in her mid-30s her name was Helga testorf Andrew started to paint her sleeping waking thinking dressed and undressed but for 15 years he hid away every painting he produced not just from the outside world but also from his wife and business partner
33:30 - 34:00 Betsy Helga became the Catalyst of one of the greatest scandals in American art history and one of its best kept [Music] secrets he continued to paint his usual subjects and by producing a steady flow of work WTH was able to paint Helga without arousing suspicion but the concealment couldn't
34:00 - 34:30 last and when the Helga paintings were first revealed how did it happen what was told to the public they were revealed as uh The Secret body of work kept private even from his own family and especially his wife and therefore uh he must be hiding something Beyond just the fact that he painted this these nudes that was sort of the subtext of almost almost everything that was written at the time that he had betrayed
34:30 - 35:00 his wife Betsy in some way Betsy wyth had been the driving force behind an extremely successful business producing reproductions of a husband's work for sale to the general public but it was not popular with everyone most of the critics took pot shots based on on reproductions they had seen or works that were in public
35:00 - 35:30 collections which weren't that many I mean aside from Christina's World at the Museum of Modern Art there weren't that many hanging in museums around the country for a variety of reasons yeah and I think for New York critics in particular they were just dumbfounded by an artist who would paint farms and yeah and fishermen I think that aspect of his work is part and parcel of what critics see as the sort of nostalgia of looking back at earlier period of time frankly Edward Hopper did the same thing he
35:30 - 36:00 wasn't a real fan of cities he was uh kind of lamenting the loss of farms and Rural Life and U there is that Heritage that is very uh deep-seated and embedded in sort of the American psyche I think in some ways however controversial W's output was amongst the critics it didn't stop the 250 works that make up the Helga cycle being sold almost immediately they went to a single collector for what
36:00 - 36:30 was reportedly around $6 million the national Scandal had only helped push up the price you know Andy had his own reasons for what he did and I think part of it was uh in the nature of a surprise for uh for the world but also for his wife he wanted to uh prove in his own way that uh he was capable of this rather in those days and in his mind a body of work that was going to raise some eyebrows he wanted to go deeper he
36:30 - 37:00 wanted to build on that early success but he was trying to get at certain aspects of the human condition that were and are you know important to him you know change Life Death Sex all of those things are kind of the themes that he he explored throughout his work in various ways in almost three decades since the Scandal broke Helga testorf has rarely
37:00 - 37:30 spoken about her experiences today she's agreed to meet me and talk about her years with WTH hello Helga hello there sir Michael how are you Mich Michael pen very nice to meet you thank you so much for talking to us it's it's great to meet you thank you can I ask you you just take you slightly back to the circumstances which led to him revealing
37:30 - 38:00 the 15 years worth of paintings he did of you how did that come about did he tell you that he it I don't have to tell you that that is so obvious it was expected of him to put Out Paintings like pancakes and no real artist wants to be controlled of producing painting that look like post Cuts one
38:00 - 38:30 after another so are you saying that he was going through a period when he was producing things that were sort ofci sure just like that he needed to be painting for himself and he knew that the paintings he had done with you he didn't have to show them to anybody he could learn he could he needed to feed himself not always have some critic tell him oh
38:30 - 39:00 this is good this is not good when he was the most peaceful man why would he argue with them they didn't know any better he was the best critic there was and together we critiqued believe me I learned a lot and he listened to me too it was so important what you did for him was that something a relationship that that worked straight away was it something that I always wanted to
39:00 - 39:30 be a model or an artist or movie star it was a childish dream because my mother always said you got to have a profession first so the fact that he wanted you to model for him that must have been for you a wonderful sort of release in a way yes it was yes it was I couldn't believe it but you know when I do something it's not just 100% it's all or nothing roughly how many hours a day
39:30 - 40:00 would you be oh my God in the beginning we did eight hours sometimes 8 hours it was long he always said are you tired yet I said no keep on going I guess we both knew whatever it takes there's such a Stillness in a lot of the paintings was that hard to get so it's not just a question of lying on a bed and going to sleep it was hard you're sore cuz you have to hold a
40:00 - 40:30 certain position very sore when the paintings he made of you were revealed and the Press got hold of it I mean was supposed to was this something you were prepared for no of course not never it wasn't supposed to be shown until after his death he totally really he totally I think he was uh sort of caught in something too that it come out and I don't know how it came
40:30 - 41:00 out but are you saying that he he didn't want the paintings to be seen until after his death mhm is that what you're saying that was his promise to me but Mother Nature had other plans when the story of the Helga paintings broke in 1985 the American Press bombarded Helga's family home hounding to speak out about a supposed affair with Andrew
41:00 - 41:30 wyth our Hell broke loose I think all the paparis who were after us couldn't find me oh I loved it how how did you get away how did you get away from them that's secret that's me absolutely there must have been people wagging tongues saying that you were his mistress and uh you know it was a sexual relation they didn't know any better they didn't know our language we were not talking that way we have better things to think about it
41:30 - 42:00 said you just missed the sunrise or you just missed the the light and did you see the beautiful moon last night Nature has all the answers so it was he couldn't follow us it wasn't a sexual relationship it has nothing to do with it whatever was personal what's that got to do with the painting if you are sitting and trying to get a certain tone for instance you know how
42:00 - 42:30 many times you have to try and do you know there is Magic in the brush you think you wanted anybody to watch them paint I put it right on the line and that's about it there were many people who knocked at our door oh can I go out painting with you uh can I watch your paint certainly not any more than I I would have you watch me making
42:30 - 43:00 love no The nude is the most holy thing that you can get next to it a Divine Spirit the soul you pains the [Music] soul W's younger son Jamie now has his permanent home in Maine on Southern
43:00 - 43:30 Island a short boat ride from Tenants [Music] [Applause] [Music] Harbor carrying on the family tradition Jamie wyth like his father Father Andrew and his grandfather NC as a respected
43:30 - 44:00 painter in his own [Music] right whilst his painting has its own distinct style his father's work ethic has certainly rubbed off on him fantastic Jamie is clearly a man who works hard at his art there we go good see you welcome to Island yeah yeah thank you thank you wow long way out thanks for sending the
44:00 - 44:30 boat that's the studio but I paint in the bathroom I paint in the trees so I I like not having a real studio just what takes your fancy particular day [Music] absolutely Island life became a sanctuary for the family after the furor the Helga Scandal what was the reaction
44:30 - 45:00 from the family when uh the Helga paintings were revealed um or well what was the effect on the family well I mean it's a remarkable body of work I think the first reaction was my God I mean he produced this huge amount of work and also produced all other things at the time and all kept this sort of secret and uh and was your mother's immediate reaction well was amazing that this body of work and
45:00 - 45:30 then she then you know it was obviously she felt how could he have done this without my knowledge I mean she had been a a real partner of he and his life and work and of course the complete you couldn't get more diametric opposites than Betsy Wyatt and Helga testorf a little picture of was really was a perfect portrait of my father I mean he would go from his house with my mother which and that house is devoid of flowers devoid of any
45:30 - 46:00 artifice and what it's just the paintings on the wall Very s and then he would travel to a studio which was helo's domain which was complete chaos food stacked up magazines books tunnels through it really the two sides of of my father's Personality yeah and I don't think he really even had a love affair with Helga it wasn't any of that it was just he was obsessed with with her fingernails her elbow her pubic hair
46:00 - 46:30 whatever he was just obsessed with sort of getting her on paper and paint the relationship then between your mother and Helga I imagine was a sort of slightly awkward area or yes but I think you know to me the Helga thing I mean it was a combination of his interest in Carl Kerner Germans at part of Chad's Ford where they lived the whole it did a lot of things rolled into into that sort of thing and then the big
46:30 - 47:00 secret the fact that he was able to work in these things without people knowing about it so why he ended up living on an island why why was that well because my mother his wife chose to live in an island she wanted to create this world and and he didn't want it so an island person he was not yeah why did she liked Island she loved the control she loved the fact of being surrounded by water and she could control who was seeing you know what was going on and so forth it
47:00 - 47:30 it fit right into her modus operand okay cheers again thank you thank you thank you safe [Music] travel it seems pretty clear to me that Andy was a free spirit who could never be tied down after the helus Handel was over he continued to see his muse now no
47:30 - 48:00 longer a secret Helga was Often by his side while he painted both during his summers in Maine and when the summer was over back in Chad's for although Andrew had painted his hometown for most of his life he continued to find new subjects even in his later years in the 1990s he transferred his
48:00 - 48:30 attentions to local couple George and Helen sepala he virtually took up residence in their home becoming almost part of the furniture he wanted to get as up close and personal as was humanly possible recording and painting every detail of their daily [Music]
48:30 - 49:00 routine he knew where the key was he knew how to get in and he came when he wanted to so he didn't feel it was kind of like an intrusion it kind of no no uh now when we caught US in bed that was a little embarrassing well caught you in bed well it's like he would come in
49:00 - 49:30 maybe 6:00 and once he knew where the key was then he would sneak he loved to sneak in on us I mean he loved to tiptoe of the stairs and he would go down the hall and the first few times he'd stand by the bed and then for some reason I would wake up and I'd scream because he'd be standing over me and then we after while we started catching on and we listened for the car and then we started playing jokes on him so he always expected us to be in the bed which we stayed there but sometimes we
49:30 - 50:00 put the wigs on ourselves mannequins inside on the pillow like they were sleeping and then we and we'd step into the next room and look through the cracks of the door and and watch him coming in on he's you know tiptoeing ever so lightly you know then they'd go and he'd pick up the um bed spread and they and from the back room we'd be saying gotcha we got you you know we we did terrible things to him and terrible things but he loved it it doesn't sound
50:00 - 50:30 very restful your mornings you know what are we going to do today Mr why he met his match when he came here yeah yeah for all those years he painted I would have to call my boss and say I'll be a little late today Andy had no concept of time of my job he would start painting and if I had to leave he would get very upset he was very um possessive of his he really was It was a away for him um when he wanted to get away frombody the news
50:30 - 51:00 people um visitors if company of any kind this this was a Hideway his wife well I think everybody wants to get away from the wife once in a while I'm not going to say anything everybody wants to get away from the husband once in a while too [Music] Andy made a point of having Christmas
51:00 - 51:30 with the [Music] sealas in the last 20 years of his life he spent virtually every Christmas day with them I said Andy we're going to have you over for a Christmas party and he said well I'm going to tell you now Betsy won't come so George wrote Betsy a letter and uh said in effect um in the nicest of words that we will miss you and it was you'll be very comfortable
51:30 - 52:00 here and blah blah blah down the line whole letter and at the very end I told her to get her ass over here in those words and I understand that her secretary says how can anybody talk to you like that yeah she but she came came she came she came yes that got her it got her we went to the door and there she was hello welcome welcome to the surus come on in when people gave him Christmas presents it would be coats and boots and shoes and he'd have to run right over to show us what he got for
52:00 - 52:30 because I'd have to say wait a minute Andy I have to get a picture of this I have to get a picture and that's how we would preserve this or else he would never post but then kind of like he's getting this portrait of a a reclusive exhibition that's right that's right of his new outfit you're right look what we have on sweaters he looks like the king of Denmark dropping does he does Christmas 2008 would be Andy's last with the sepalas he died just a few weeks later at the
52:30 - 53:00 ripe old age of 91 Helen sapala sent her condolences to his widow Betsy dear Betsy and family we are thinking of you during this very difficult time we send our love thoughts prayers George and I have lost a dear and loyal friend in nandy 20 years ago he entered our lives and never left so many memories so much joy and a real honor to know him we will miss him
53:00 - 53:30 dearly especially at Christmas this past Christmas he stopped in during the morning and had his last cup of tea with us it was touching love Helen so my need was gone [Music]
53:30 - 54:00 the morning after Wyatt's death Betsy turned to the family that had made her husband famous all those years earlier out of the blue John Olen nephew of Andrew's Muse Christina received a call inquiring about the family graveyard the morning he died Betsy called me and
54:00 - 54:30 she says I want you to know that Andy's passed away and you're the first to know were you surprised that he wanted to be buried alongside Christina in the family plot yes I was but she said well she said she made us famous so we feel that we ought have buried there so I I went ahead with it the grav dier came down at the house knocked on the door and he said uh where are you putting Andy and I
54:30 - 55:00 I said what do you mean where am I put in Andy and he said well I guess you're the one that's got to pick out his grave so I had to go to the cemetery and find a spot where he's where to bury him was that a difficult thing to choose well I walked around I said what do you do with a famous man yes what and I mean I'm not a famous person by no means I'm I'm just a common everyday person around here and
55:00 - 55:30 so I picked out the spot where used bu yeah okay so now it's ready baited up wow let me just watch it wow yeah yeah yeah okay here we go okay God bless her and all her go down [Music]
55:30 - 56:00 and here we have Anna Christina's grave and her brother and her brother Alo yeah and Christina's parents it's mod this little Cemetery isn't it it is it's just a a few families yeah and here we have um Andrew wife's grave yeah that's Andrew's this is the newest grave in the cemetery nice simple stuff yeah very simple just
56:00 - 56:30 name and date yeah other information yeah that's the most recent the most recent [Music] grave there's almost nothing here which I like I think I'm more attracted as I get old older by nothing vacancy light on the side of a wall or
56:30 - 57:00 the light on these snow drifts and our shadows across them uh makes me go back more into my soul I guess but you have to save it for the right moment uh it's like building up uh your urge for sex if you let it Peter out all the time it's no good but if if you build it up for the right moment it's terrific and I find
57:00 - 57:30 that's true with painting I mean you could be going along I can be going along and think God this oh this is all vacant and then I'll see a piece of Bob wire against the snow rusted Bob wire with maybe a piece of of of a horse's man caught in it and that Rusty Bob wire and that horse's main hair can just go to you and get you
57:30 - 58:00 going after a life dedicated to Art it seems right that Andrew wy's final resting place is almost at the spot where he painted Christina in front of her family home it seemed a gesture typical of the man that even in death he wanted to be with the people whose ordinary lives and hard strugg he depicted for so long The more I've learned about Andrew wyth the more
58:00 - 58:30 intriguing I find him brilliant technician and a man of Mischief a playful prankster disciplined enough to paint on almost every single day of his working life an artist who created a unique World W World by capturing time and time again the universal in his own backyard coming up on BBC 2 a tray of fries Christmas Delight with a seasonal
58:30 - 59:00 special Qi next then for 2013 the best images came from the camera in your pocket smartphones Capture Moments in time at 10:30 [Music]