Karen Baumgartner

In several interviews Wyeth surprisingly and tellingly described himselfs as an abstract painter - despite the fact that his art clearly portrays objects rooted in the visual world. Though he wasn't referring to his art as abstract in the way his contemporarie Clyfford Still or Mark Rothko would have understood the term, Wyeth was pointing out the degree to which his febrile imagination went beyond what was merely visible. When Edward Hopper asked Wyeth to sign a letter protesting the disproportionate number of abstract artists whose work had been included in the 1960 Whitney Museum of American Art biennial versus those whose work was representational, Wyeth demurred. Not only did he want to avoid such a public fray, he also didn't feel he need to think of the art world as such disparate camps. In his view, his own art straddled both sides.