How Andrew Wyeth's 'Helga' went viral

Andrew Wyeth, 91, died in his sleep this morning. The Realist painter's 1948 "Christina's World" is an icon of Americana, one of the most popular pictures in the Museum of Modern Art's collection.

In the aftermath of World War II, as U.S. soldiers returned home from theaters in Europe and the Pacific, and American women returned to the hearth after taking a powerful role in operating the daily machinery of American life, the painting pictured a nostalgic yearning for a return to what had been normalcy: A young woman, sprawled in the grass, reaches out toward a distant farmhouse on the far horizon.

Coincidentally, Leonard E.B. Andrews also died the other day. The name might not ring a bell, unless you happened to subscribe to one of his 1980s newsletters, which included such memorable titles as “The National Bankruptcy Report” and “The Swine Flu Claim and Litigation Reporter.” Or, unless you remember Helga.

The New York Times obit describes Andrews, 83, as the man “who rocked the art world when he bought 240 previously unknown Andrew Wyeth works depicting a mysterious, sometimes nude woman known as Helga. ... Mr. Wyeth had kept the Helga pictures secret from his wife of 46 years, Betsy. When Art & Antiques magazine disclosed their existence, and reported that Mrs. Wyeth said the works represented 'love,' the pictures made a splash.”

Newsweek and Time both put the vaguely sordid tale on their covers. That was the pre-Internet equivalent of a scandal going viral.

But I remember the tabloid story somewhat differently. I remember Andrews as a savvy participant in one of the great media hoaxes about art in the last quarter-century. He “rocked” the art world the way one rocks the cradle of a near-helpless infant.

The pseudo-scandal -- and it was pseudo -- was ginned up by ...

...Art & Antiques magazine, which was peddling an “exclusive" shocker about Wyeth in its September 1986 issue, by way of summer press releases sent to numerous news outlets. (I got one.) No one bit -- except the two news weeklies. Apparently they were starved for something, anything in the way of  beach-reading during the dog days of August. That's the silly season -- or, as White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card famously put it in 2003, “From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August.”

Within days, newspapers and television broadcasts from coast to coast were reporting on an artist who is supposedly a national treasure who may or may not have been sleeping with his model who was a woman who was completely unknown to the national treasure's wife who was also his business manager but who was unaware that her husband/client had for 15 years been painting pictures of her sister's housekeeper. Or something like that.

Long after the flap died down, facts slowly began to emerge.

Wyeth (pictured) and his wife had actually approached Andrews about buying the cache of works, which cast a certain doubt on the story's scandalous intimations of an adulterous affair. Andrews and Wyeth were neighbors and social acquaintances. Indeed, several of the Helga paintings had been shown in exhibitions over the years, putting the lie to their being a “secret.” And a sober story about the sale had long since hit the news -- in the April 23 issue of the Delaware County Daily Times, published not far from Andrews' and Wyeth's Pennsylvania homes.

Wyeth had been the subject of a fawning Art & Antiques profile a year before. A friend of his brought the new “secret scandal” story to the magazine -- just days after Andrews bought the paintings. And, perhaps most revealingly, Andrews hadn't just bought the paintings and drawings from Wyeth. A knowledgeable publisher who had gotten rich off those pricey executive newsletters, he also bought the copyright to the images.

That gave the collector, not the artist, a cut on every note card, calendar or other Helga reproduction sold.

And soon there were lots of reproductions to sell, thanks to the priceless publicity Time and Newsweek provided. (A missed red flag: Neither magazine's staff art critic wrote the story.) Thanks were also due to Washington's National Gallery of Art, which almost never does solo shows of living artists, but jumped right on it. The NGA foolishly organized an exhibition and tour of Andrews' supposedly secret collection of scandalous Helga material -- it came to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1988 -- complete with busy gift shop.

The exhibition catalog featured all those reproductions on which Andrews held the copyright. It also had documentary pictures shot by the Wyeth friend who brought the story to Art & Antiques. And, it included an essay by the collector, titled -- hold your breath -- “A National Treasure.”

Ten short months after the tour ended, Andrews sold “the national treasure” to an unidentified Japanese buyer, for $40 million to $50 million. With the help of a tax-exempt array of nonprofit art museums, the collector's three-year profit on the phony art-and-sex scandal has been estimated in excess of 600%.

So, the next time your local art museum has the bright idea to show a private collector's horde of paintings, remember Helga. Or, better yet, remember “The Swine Flu Claim and Litigation Reporter.”

--Christopher Knight

Credit: Time magazine; Wyeth Study Center/photo: ©Victoria Wyeth and  "Crown of Flowers 1974," AP Photo/Adelson

Comments

[carole Laventhol]

This is indeed, an interesting story by Christopher Knight. However, it is sad to think that, at his death, this great artist, Andrew Wyeth, is remembered for the hype surrounding him, rather than for the great body of art work he produced, and his dedication and commitment to his art ,for his entire life.

I would have rather read more about him as an artist, than a money pon.

[K Terace]

After having read several news clips on the passing of Andrew Wyeth I figured there had to be at least one that dove into the "conspiracies" surrounding the Helga paintings. This was an interesting read and seemed a bit tongue in cheek. I would have rather waited for such a few more weeks post mortem, however each artist (writer) sees the way they see and spin their own yarns as they deem fit. Well done over all I would say.

[Steve Boggs]

Andrew Wyeth was clearly the greatest American painter. And one of the greatest artists in world history. What constantly (even in death) incensed art world insiders was that he was financially successful, absolutely mastered two mediums, was an incredible draftsman, had an unbelievable ability to see to the core of his subject matter, and never swayed from painting his world his way. His artistic mastery shined an intense spotlight on the farce that art critics in the US have passed off on art lovers from WWII to present. Take a trip to MOMA, study the craftsmanship and design then visit the Brandywine museum and you will understand why critics feared him.

He will be sorely missed by millions of us. But his legacy will live on through the thousands of paintings and drawings that will be loved by future generations.

[Mat Gleason]

(A missed red flag: Neither magazine's staff art critic wrote the story.)
THAT is not a red flag - that is searching for an honest reporter and not a compromised insider.

[eric]

i think this is a typo...

In the aftermath of World War II, as U.S. soldiers returned home from theaters in Europe and the Pacific,

THEATERS -- should be wars, right?

[Donald Frazell]

Yes, it was hype, and far from being Wyeths best work, but still much better than much produced these days. Certainly not the best American painter, though de Kooning was really a Dutchman. Pollock limited but great when on. Diebenkorn and a few others, Tamayo better than any of us Norte Americanos, we really do overrate ourselves. Most of the AbEx were good solid works and that about it. Romaire Bearden also underrated because he wasnt the right color. And so ghettoized by the ignorant as "ethnic". We always get the press because we are Americans and its our press, and we control much of the worlds.

Being the most powerful nation does NOT make us the best artist, Musicans, yes, grossly underrated, as Miles and Coltrane were the Matise and Picasso of music. But Wyeth was a rare bird, a man able to successfully build upon older styles of painting, and yet keep them fresh and alive. It was not a fresh breeze he brought, but a steady flow of ancient air, still nourishing, if not envigorating. He was a true artist, something rare in itself, in an age when art is anything, so the ceiling can be lowered enough to make any art school grad feel like he is the next van Gogh, and so easily parted from their money. What was PT Barnums saying? Oh yes, a fool and his money.....

This Helga stuff was hype, but hardly something unusual in the art world, just filtered out into the world at large, something the art world had retreated from, and seldom dealth with. Unusual to get on a non art mag cover, but far worse has happened. From Warhol to Hirst, that age has also died with the passing of the year. Wyeth outlived it, interesting. RIP with Graham teh idiosyncratic artists are vanishiing, the ones the art world could not tame and turn into images of themselves, mediocrities. RIP

art collegia delenda est

[Michael James Hawk]

Very interesting backstory. Of course, self promotion can be regarded as a non sequitur. The hoax was not a hoax -- the work stands for itself, and those that were savvy made a market on genius work.

[Donald Frazell]

Yes, a typo, but not in that way. Should be theaters OF the Pacific and Europe, for each segment was a war viewed in itself, and refered to as theaters of war.
Wyeths gift was both retaining and even going back to a way of life that was fading or gone. As art to be great must always fulfill all its three essential parts, defining humanity, exploring nature, and searchign for god, he had all three. But his definition of America was one that was almost gone. A time and pace that no longer exists, even when in the country far away from the digital age. The rhythm of life in the US he retained, and kept the harmonies and melody of god and nature. Unusual, but it works. Its True. Thats the best things that can be said about art, and that it triggers passions, an intensity of life released in the viewer, connected, as one. This is Art.

[iremember]

The art critics of the twentieth century had a vested interest in modern art.
Unfortunately modern art is shallow and decorative. Have you ever noticed how
few people visit the modern art section of our galleries. To ask the viewer to see nothing in your art is asking too much. This is the type of thing that should be reserved for building decorations and mouldings for furniture. True art is not
mere imitation. These so-called critics of taste in many instances are not great
artists themselves and wouldn't know how to paint a great picture if their life
depended on it. Great art is a synthesis of life. A coordination of great design,
which is all that modern has and nothing else, a feeling for the subject, great
skill, and yes a sense of form. Abstract modern art has only the design. Great
realist art begins with design and then adds the other elements. Great realistic
art is never a imitation of the subject like a camera would give. Critics seem to
not understand this. Wake up art world. Andrew Wyeth and other great realistic
artists will over time become the remembered artists of the last century. Fashion
is fickle, but great art is timeless. Mere daubs of color without meaning are
meaningless. They are fine for decoration but little else.

[Donald Frazell]

Uhm what hick town are you in? Contemporary art like MoCA, which is NOT Modern art, yes, no one goes as its sily academic games. Ever been to MOMA? Didnt think so, its JAMMED, as much as the Met. The Guggenheim gets more than the Frick, both getting more than the Whitney, which is filled with black and white clad throngs of artistes only, sucking up for an exhibition of their own daubings., games, and self absorbed scratching.

The post impressionists through early Modernists are among the best works ever created by man, for it is about mankind, how we live in nature, and seeking god, not of religious orientation, but of the scientific breakthroughs. It lost some heart after both the wars, though Ab Ex was very much a spiritual search, but just that. The individual alone, no nature, all ins strictkly spiritual terms. we need to get back to all of mankind, nature and god.

Wyeth was very good, and did these things, but on a very minor scale. Strictly about an America of a certain time and place. Not all of humanitywhich is philosophy, Science, which is nature, and theology, of all religions and more, which is the search for god. He did all three, but particular ones. Still legit, and has life to it power, but on a small scale. Still works, but the daubings you speak of are either the clearly decorative paitings of today, or would you call Monet just decorative daubings?

art collegia delenda est

[Jon]

Andrew Wyeth will be remembered as a great artstic stylist of the 20th century, who almost miraculously created a distinctive realist style at a time when other artists, and art's doctrine-mongers (like Mr. Knight, who, with the vulgarity typical of his sect, places a knife in the corpse with this article, and yet doesn't have the stones to do it simply and "realistically" -- i.e. accountably. A putrid coward who will be instantly forgotten when his time comes.) had given up on anything that smacked of representation. Well... Wyeth had his own path; a true individual, the fact of which shows plainly on any one of his canvases -- as does the herd-mentality of so many critics when they attempt to use words to blot out the sight of beautiful things.

The shameful outpouring of envy, resentment, and vitriole upon Wyeth's death has not been confined to Mr. Knight. One can read the Times also, where the back-handed compliments and veiled slights outnumber any serious attempt to take the measure of the artist. Too much of 20th century art was about doctrines and ideologies: criticism acting the part of soapbox marketing. Art has allowed itself to be housed in a very frail structure, and the contractors, as contractors will do, defend it with loads of BS. No surprise, then, that Wyeth's death has been used as a pretext for some of these contractors to unload a bit more from their carts.

All praise to the great artists working the abstract, expressionist, post-expressionist, and other veins of gold. Let's not forget that beauty is the goal, not fashion and thatfFashionability and innovation are not the same thing --- and that you can't look at art by listening to a critic.

[Steve Bozich]

What I find absurd - the passing of an artist: he too was categorized into one of our many "isms" - modernism, pointillism,impressionism,symbolism, surrealism,cubism,... it never ends.The man painted - I for one enjoyed his work- There is one "ism" that is not a part of any art movement but usually gets more press than the art itself:it's the criticism - those that can do - those that can't criticize- Art - in all forms - is self expression - if you don't like what he painted then re-paint it so it fits right into your idea of perfect artwork - and get ready for the criticism- he'll be missed

[Donald Frazell]

Art is neither about beauty, which is always a conventional, socailly accepted norm, or self expression, which goes without saying, anything we do has self expresison in it, it is NOT however arts goal. According to social norms beauty used to be Helgas, blonde healthy looking girls, when she really is pretty damn average. And those of different hues were ignored, when beauty comes in all shapes and forms and colors.

Art is about the searchf or Truth, and our limited abiliteis can never fully comprehend, in the visual loangauge, not the verbal. Cezannes canvases espcially his later ones and watercolors, were considered ugly, incomplete, mad. Yety they were simply compliations of reality as known up to the minute through art, the unification of all things through amtter adn energy. Losing oneself, Man, nature and god as one. And his folowers, the early Moderns,. Matisse, Braque, Picasso, Klee, as well as all the other post impressionists created new, really just truth embodied in two and three dimensional ways, Beauty riled against in their day.

Wyeths were not new, but true to a certain time and place, and so allows us to approach truth, and therefore, true beauty. Even when upsetting, thats the viewers problem if he cannot appreicate it, for it is not about him, or the artist. Its about life. And lving fully, intensely, truthfully. Wyeth was a very limited artsit, self imposed, but found part os this truth in his little patches of ground. Cant think of many who have or could like this, he was unique. Sort of a naturalist Rousseau. And so, deserves our respect.

RIP

[Jonathan Hamburger]

I find it peculiar mentioning "Christina's World", while not mentioning the fact that the woman sprawled on the grass is crippled... Hence this is not just a nostalgic yearning, but a much more bleak concept of struggle and unattainable goals and certainly not a vision of normalcy...

[Christine Bethea]

It seems to be that Christopher Knight's story lacks the objective slant, I usually like in an article. There even seems to be a hint of jealousy. Almost always, scandal creates more fame, and it certainly hasn't hurt Wyeth's reputation. In fact, there is little that CAN hurt the reputation of an artist. Please, I don't think we need feel sorry for Mr. Wyeth about these things or bemoan the comercialization of his work. Of course, he will be most remembered for his brilliant art and the Helga issue will read the same as when Van Gough cut off his ear, or Picasso painted his wife crying in hysteria. We all love a slightly sordid tale, do we not?