"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

30 December 2011

Eternal.

Wyeth, Braids (detail), 1979


It's endurance that we have. Ingrained in our culture is the patience to endure. Each day I stand here and look out my window and watch the seasons pass -- life coming, going, coming again. We live every day with this truth. We are the ones who learn to resist change least of all. Is that conservatism? To take comfort in endurance? To know that endurance is better than change? Change runs in circles, repeats itself. We are the rock; the wind blows one way and then another.

That is why Wyeth is our artist. He paints people who have learned this basic lesson in life: to endure. Criticss who claim that he paints only the sentimental past miss the point completely. He doesn't just paint the past, He paints endurance. He paints eternity. Or rather each painting shows an instant in time so utterly real it becomes eternal.


- Jenny Logsdon, from Gene Logsdon's Wyeth People

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