Website Analysis: AndrewWyeth.com
Andrew Wyeth was undisputedly one of the great artists of his time. The son of N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth was based in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and based much of his work on the surroundings of that area. I chose to analyze his website because I live near Chadds Ford, have seen his work in person, and because he recently passed away, consequently bringing new importance to his work and his website.
According to the homepage, the main purpose of AndrewWyeth.com is “for writing the artist’s catalogue raisonné and handling all permissions for image reproduction” (AndrewWyeth.com). There is a prominently displayed splash on the homepage of one of his latest watercolor paintings, Stop, completed in 2008. On the site’s ever-present menu bar there are links to images, exhibit locations, and various publications about Wyeth himself and his art. The overall tone of the website is that of quietness and simplicity, which mirrors the tone of many of Wyeth’s works.
Though AndrewWyeth.com is a very simple website, it is well designed overall and has a consistent design that ties all of the pages together nicely.
The main colors of the site, black, gray, and moss green may not be the most appealing or exciting colors for a website, but they are the hues that can be found in many of Wyeth’s pieces, so they work in this case. When one enters the images gallery the color design changes to a nicely contrasted black and gray. I am not entirely sure why this is, but it may be to emphasize the images and make them seem more important.
The overall design of the site is simple and symmetric, with clean lines throughout. There is a main banner across the top of the page displaying the name of the artist and a simple menu bar along the bottom, with abundant space in between. The menu bar is the only obvious source of navigation on the site, but it works well enough. The only time when it proves problematic is in the images gallery, where one has to click on a painting link to bring back all of the menu bar selections. It would also be nice if the menu bar could float, especially on the pages where the scrolling is seemingly endless. Overall, the site navigation is easy to figure out, but could be more consistent. The main ‘Andrew Wyeth’ header at the top of the page usually takes one back to the main page, but not on every page (this flaw was present in both Safari and Firefox).
The main font of the site looks to be size 14 Book Antigua, which is easy to read and traditional, although not as boring as Times New Roman. My one complaint with the font is it’s lack of contrast on some of the pages, like the little opening paragraph below the splash image on the main page; some added contrast would have been nice there, it also would make it easier to read for the more visually impaired. There are also Arial and Times New Roman fonts present, but they are generally used consistently. Graphics on the site are very minimal, mainly being used to display Wyeth’s work and to gather information about his catalogue raisonné.
For the most part, the site is informational, with an extensive list of exhibits and information about how Wyeth’s work can be used in public display or in reproduction. It would have been nice to see some images of the location on this page. The images gallery only displays a few paintings from the artist’s extensive catalogue of work, probably to give the viewer a taste of what Wyeth’s work is about. I wouldn’t say that one of the site’s main functions is to display his art in any way; the images on the site are rather small, making it hard to fully appreciate them. It looks like the main viewer of this site would be an older individual who had an interest in learning more about Wyeth’s work or had an interest in utilizing it in some way. I say older because the subject matter of the art would probably appeal more to an older more mature audience that could relate more to the simple, rural images of yesteryear depicted in much of Wyeth’s work. One other interesting thing is the link to ‘Carolyn Wyeth’ on the main page, which takes one to a very bland and boring website that still falls under the umbrella of AndrewWyeth.com. This portion of the site is dedicated to compiling her catalogue raisonné.
Aside from the physical aspects of the website, it’s overall non-design content is also well done.
In terms of accuracy, I would have to say that this site is very accurate. On the home page there is a message that calls the site “authorized” and that “This site is written and maintained by the office founded by the artist’s wife, Betsy James Wyeth” (AndrewWyeth.com). So, based upon that information alone, I would take the site very seriously and trust the content that I find on it. The website is also fairly current, with a splash image on the homepage that was completed by Wyeth just last year. However, in light of the fact that Wyeth just recently passed away, I am surprised that there is no mention of his death or any sort of memorial page.
All in all, AndrewWyeth.com is a good website, for the purpose that it’s trying to fulfill. However, it would have been nice to see more images by the artist, and a more exciting set of fonts and colors. But the site does a decent job of representing the artist and allowing anyone interested easy access to his official office. Perhaps, in light of Andrew Wyeth’s recent death, his site will see a bit of evolution and rejuvenation, but until then the current site is adequate.
Work Cited
Andrew Wyeth. Ed. Office of Andrew Wyeth. 2008. AndrewWyeth.com. 12 Feb. 2009 <http://www.andrewwyeth.com>
