Friendship chronicles

The story behind the iconic “Christina’s World,’’ Andrew Wyeth’s painting of Christina Olson perched in a field facing her home, is one of poverty and disability. That story unfolds in the new book “Andrew Wyeth: Christina’s World and the Olson House’’ (Rizzoli) by Michael K. Komanecky and Otoyo Nakamura. The book also chronicles Wyeth’s decades-long friendship with the Olsons of Cushing, Maine, and the controversy surrounding the preservation of the house he made famous. What’s even more fascinating than the text, though, are the dozens of sketches and paintings by Wyeth and old photographs of Christina Olson, and her brother, Alvaro.