Christina S World

If any visitors to the Brandywine River Museum follow horse racing, they may connect the dots, noticing how a prominent local horse owner gives his thoroughbreds names such as Draft Age and Christina's World - and how there may be a filly in Saturday's 134th Kentucky Derby named Eight Belles. This horse-naming tale goes back to when Rick Porter, now an owner of top racehorses, spent part of his youth in the heart of Wyeth Country, living "across the hill" from a favorite subject of artist Andrew Wyeth.

When the Andrew Wyeth exhibition opens today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, no one should expect it to be a C?zanne. C?zanne, as in the 1996 show that became the biggest special-exhibition attendance generator in the museum's history. C?zanne, as in the event that awakened the city's tourism industry to the potential of arts and culture as economic stimulus. C?zanne, which had "a wonderful transforming effect on the city's image of itself," as Art Museum director Anne d'Harnoncourt puts it. Not that anyone at the museum would complain if "Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic" ended up also being a blockbuster.

In Andrew Wyeth's most famous painting, Christina's World, a woman is seen crawling up a hillside toward a stark, frame house in the distance. Today, the Maine home of Christina Olson attracts about a 100 visitors a day during the summer months, said Janis Casper, the curator. While the focus at the Cushing, Maine, site is artistic inspiration, with copies of Wyeth paintings in many of the rooms, this area has its own version of the Wyeth house tour. It takes on the creativity of the entire Wyeth family, beginning with its source - the family patriarch, N.C. Wyeth.

The experience of seeing DanceFusion and Leja Dance Theater on the same bill at Movement Theater International, where the two troupes perform through tomorrow afternoon, is like taking a sauna. Without any time to catch your breath, you move from the hot (Leja) to the cold (DanceFusion). The continual switch between presentational styles - Leja's extroverted manner versus DanceFusion's restrained manner - was a shock to my system at first, but after a while, it became invigorating. Dance by dance, the program has its ups and downs as well.

Like many people, Gwendolyn Bye was drawn to the paintings of Andrew Wyeth for their mixture of photographic detail and dreamlike suggestiveness. "Just the idea of a lone person in a wide-open space is captivating," Bye says of Wyeth's most famous painting, Christina's World. As a choreographer, though, Bye looked at the picture of a young girl lying in the meadow with a particular slant: How do you make a dance about a person who can't walk? Bye says she got the idea of a dance based on the painting in the 1970s, when she saw a film documenting the life of Christina Olson, one of Wyeth's most important models, who suffered from a progressively debilitating disease that eventually left her unable to walk.

Andrew Wyeth was a local treasure as well as the most popular American artist of the 20th century. Wyeth, who died Friday at age 91, became synonymous in the art world with the Brandywine River Museum, which has a permanent exhibit of his works. His muted watercolors, many of them inspired by the bucolic scenery around his home in Chadd's Ford, are identifiable at a glance by audiences the world over. Artistic genius runs in his family. Wyeth was the son of N.C. Wyeth, who became famous for illustrating classics such as Treasure Island.

Although it may by now be a cliche, the image of the misunderstood, isolated artist has long been part of the mystique of the Wyeth family. The founder of America's best-known art dynasty, N.C. Wyeth was the illustrator of such classics as Treasure Island, Robin Hood and Robinson Crusoe, which captured the imaginations of generations of readers. But as an artist, he was temperamental and dissatisfied by the thought that he would be remembered for his commercial work, not for the landscapes and still lifes he did in his spare time.

As his three-week book tour wound down, Richard Meryman looked barely frazzled after a radio call-in show and before signing books Tuesday at the Chester County Book Co. In both forums, he seemed never to tire of answering variations of the same question: What is Andrew Wyeth's secret life? And what of his relationship with Helga Testorf, the woman he painted for 15 years without his wife's knowledge? A conversation with the author of Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life covered a great deal of ground, from his method of gathering material from an elusive subject who demanded "no damn tape recorders," to the problem of writing about a life spent almost entirely in two places, Chadds Ford and Maine.

Somehow we were just waiting for this one. In the Good-Gigs-Are-Hard-to- Come-By-So-Why-Should-We-Kiss-Off-Ours world of popular music, members of the recently disbanded rap group Public Enemy announced yesterday that they'd reunite and were planning a new album before the end of the year. "After having taken time out for reorganization, Public Enemy is back in action," began an eight-paragraph, state-of-the-band statement from leader Chuck D. "The show must go on. Brace yourselves for 1990.

Andrew Wyeth is to be named recipient of the 1986 Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist award today by Gov. Thornburgh in Harrisburg. "Andy Wyeth's contribution to 20th-century American art is incalculable," Thornburgh said in a statement. "How fortunate for Pennsylvania that we find this genius on our own doorstep. We are particularly proud and delighted when the objects and people of our own Brandywine River Valley transcend our world to become inspiring and beloved works of art. " Wyeth, 68, of Chadds Ford is best known for his painting Christina's World.

During the 68 years that Andrew Wyeth worked in his Chadds Ford studio building very few people aside from models got to see the room in which he painted. Signs at the entrance informed casual passers-by that they could not impose: "I am working, so please do not disturb. I do not sign autographs. " And, to show he meant business: "Beware of the dog. " But now anyone with $8 and an hour to spare can see where America's most popular artist (or was that Norman Rockwell?) created many of America's most beloved paintings.

Campus police Lt. John Pike probably never thought he'd ever be famous. Certainly not like this. Pike is now more than a person, more than a news event. He has become . . . a meme . He has joined the ranks of Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Dramatic Squirrel, and Double Rainbow Guy. Pike is the police officer who, with "OK, be that way" nonchalance, pepper-sprayed students sitting in a protest at the University of California, Davis, on Friday. In videos, Pike shows the spray can to the crowd and then serves its contents upon the squatters as if distributing a malign sacrament.

Andrew Wyeth was a local treasure as well as the most popular American artist of the 20th century. Wyeth, who died Friday at age 91, became synonymous in the art world with the Brandywine River Museum, which has a permanent exhibit of his works. His muted watercolors, many of them inspired by the bucolic scenery around his home in Chadd's Ford, are identifiable at a glance by audiences the world over. Artistic genius runs in his family. Wyeth was the son of N.C. Wyeth, who became famous for illustrating classics such as Treasure Island.

Andrew Wyeth, one of the most popular American artists of the 20th century, died early yesterday at his home in Chadds Ford. The creator of such iconic paintings as Christina's World and Wind From the Sea was 91. Mr. Wyeth died in his sleep, according to Hillary Holland, a spokeswoman for the Brandywine River Museum, where his work is always on display. He was the most famous and successful artist in a remarkable family that produced five painters in three generations - but being popular was a mixed blessing.

Leonard E.B. Andrews, 83, of Malvern, a publisher and supporter of the arts who once owned a controversial collection of paintings by Andrew Wyeth, died Jan. 2 of prostate cancer at home. In 1986, Mr. Andrews bought from Wyeth 240 paintings and sketches of Helga Testorf. The works caused a sensation when they were discovered because Wyeth had done them in secret over 15 years. Mr. Andrews, who sold the Helga collection in 1989, also owned other Wyeth works, including pencil, ink, watercolor and charcoal studies, and one tempera related to Christina Olson and her brother Alvaro.

If any visitors to the Brandywine River Museum follow horse racing, they may connect the dots, noticing how a prominent local horse owner gives his thoroughbreds names such as Draft Age and Christina's World - and how there may be a filly in Saturday's 134th Kentucky Derby named Eight Belles. This horse-naming tale goes back to when Rick Porter, now an owner of top racehorses, spent part of his youth in the heart of Wyeth Country, living "across the hill" from a favorite subject of artist Andrew Wyeth.

It was hours before daybreak, but that didn't stop Andrew Wyeth from opening the door of his friends' bedroom. He had a key to their Chadds Ford house - a massive Victorian that had once belonged to his father's teacher, illustrator Howard Pyle - and he relished the idea of moving down its dark corridors like a ghost, exploring the past. "I happened to be up there, wandering the house one night," Wyeth said in a rare, recent interview. "I thought, I shouldn't disturb them, but then I went into their bedroom and there they were, asleep.

When the Andrew Wyeth exhibition opens today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, no one should expect it to be a C?zanne. C?zanne, as in the 1996 show that became the biggest special-exhibition attendance generator in the museum's history. C?zanne, as in the event that awakened the city's tourism industry to the potential of arts and culture as economic stimulus. C?zanne, which had "a wonderful transforming effect on the city's image of itself," as Art Museum director Anne d'Harnoncourt puts it. Not that anyone at the museum would complain if "Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic" ended up also being a blockbuster.

Artist Tania Boucher describes the influence of her former teacher, Tom Bostelle, as "attitude, not style. " "Everything we have ever done has never been routine," Boucher said, recalling her more than 40 years with Bostelle. She started as an art student and in later years was gallery manager, bookkeeper, business manager and collaborator at their shared studio space in a former dance hall overlooking the Brandywine. The "attitude," evident in the artists' joint show at the Debottis Gallery here, is partly an open-minded approach to art. Bostelle, 79, may be Chester County's best-known atypical artist.

In Andrew Wyeth's most famous painting, Christina's World, a woman is seen crawling up a hillside toward a stark, frame house in the distance. Today, the Maine home of Christina Olson attracts about a 100 visitors a day during the summer months, said Janis Casper, the curator. While the focus at the Cushing, Maine, site is artistic inspiration, with copies of Wyeth paintings in many of the rooms, this area has its own version of the Wyeth house tour. It takes on the creativity of the entire Wyeth family, beginning with its source - the family patriarch, N.C. Wyeth.