‘Painting Is About Love,’ He Insisted

Wyeth, born in Chadds Ford, Pa., where he died last week, was probably the most famous modern American artist who wasn't remotely modern. He painted a rapidly disappearing America: woods, fields, sturdy country folk. Most critics disdained his work, but he was hugely popular. A 2006 Wyeth exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art drew a record number of visitors for a show by a living artist. His painting "Christina's World" hangs in the Museum of Modern Art. Wyeth was old-fashioned, but he wasn't innocent of the power of publicity. One week in 1986, he became such a big story that he made the cover of both NEWSWEEK and Time. Contributing Editor Cathleen McGuigan recalls her interview with the artist.

The New York Times ran a front-page story about a recently discovered trove of 240 Wyeth works, all of a mysterious woman named Helga who for years had been secretly posing for the artist. Shock of shocks, she'd even posed nude! Wyeth's wife, Betsy—who was also his business manager—turned up the heat on the story by saying she hadn't known of the paintings' existence (which turned out not to be entirely true) and when asked what they were really about, Betsy paused and said, "Love." It was August, and a slow news week, and we jumped on the story. When I called Wyeth's summer home in Maine, an assistant who answered was adamant that Wyeth wasn't talking to the press. I started out for Maine anyway, and I kept calling and getting the same assistant and the same refusal. That night, I phoned once more and an elderly gentleman answered. "I've been waiting for your call," Wyeth said. He invited me to come over the next morning.

We walked along the rocky beach in front of his spare, 18th-century house. He was 69 then and could have been carved in granite except for his mischievous blue eyes. "Yes, the TV people have been here," he told me. "But they haven't caught me yet." Our interview was cat-and-mouse, too. "I want the pictures to speak without anything getting in the way," he said. But he did address one topic. "Of course, my wife mentioned the fact of love—not in love, but love," he said. "Painting is about love." The next year, the Helga pictures went on tour, starting at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Later, they were said to be sold to a collector in Japan for $40 million or $50 million.