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Andrew Wyeth, 'Trodden Weed', 1951

 

Trodden Weed is described as a self portrait, but with the unusually steep perspective, the primary subject, that is, the human figure, is completely detached from the scene. Instead, the eye is forced to focus on a pair of boots that seemingly do not belong to the twentieth century. Nor does this kind of painting; most artists were striving towards a more abstract form, but here the figure treads the earth of realism. 

The boots were given to Wyeth as a gift, originally belonging to the illustrator Howard Pyle. After undergoing a difficult operation to remove part of his lung that rendered one of his arms effectively useless, Wyeth recovered by walking the hills surrounding Chadds Ford as the painting depicts. Knowing this biographical information, clearly the painting can be read through the lens of the transience of life - the dark colour palette, the movement away from the light, and the claustrophobic perspective. But perhaps there is also something stoic about the piece, a painting about survival. Though he may be faceless, there is a sense of speed and movement to our hero, aided by the fluttering coat and complex rendering of the earth itself. Wyeth certainly was not intending to give up painting. 

The most interesting part of Trodden Weed is the choice of medium. Wyeth believed tempera was the pinnacle of the media he used. The natural quality that tempera produced reminded him of the dry mud in the Brandywine river valley. The process appealed to him too, building up the layers of tempera just as 'the way the earth itself was built'. There is a tactile sense to the earth in this depiction, coupled with the detailed folding of the boots. Tempera was therefore the clearest way Wyeth could portray his interest in realism. 

Andrew Wyeth is a thorn in the side of critics. Not only does he buck the artistic trends of the time, not fitting neatly into the canon perpetuated by art historians, but he also traverses the categories of art history. There is realism in his works, but also surrealism. Sometimes there can be abstraction. Although he draws on the landscapes of his home, Wyeth does not stick to one subject matter. He has been misunderstood because his style has been considered 'unfashionable'. But if we care to toss the limiting 'schools' of art history aside, we can uncover artists like Wyeth, who may not conform, but are just as important and innovative. 

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