In the studio 11/1/15
The ground on this painting, Three Women (VW Bug), is wonderful. It's a traditional oil ground applied over acrylic gesso. A traditional oil ground is essentially white oil paint with the addition of chalk. The chalk makes…
Category: aesthetics
The Stendhal Syndrome
I am familiar with the great French author Stendhal's novels--The Red and the Black, and The Charterhouse of Parma--having read them some years ago, but until I read an article in the online magazine The Point I'd…
God Hates Renoir
I had to laugh when I read this article in the Independent. The story is about the group calling themselves Renoir Sucks protesting in front of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Renoir Sucks' main tenant is, well, that…
In the studio 7/11/15
I finished Dinner in Trenton this morning. Today's session was the 20th. Dinner in Trenton is 40" x 56." The ground was a little flat; I found myself fighting against it at times. [caption id="attachment_5253"…
How Art Became Irrelevant
Michael J. Lewis' long piece in Commentary titled, How Art Became Irrelevant, is a tour de force of cultural analysis. In his well-written and long article (did I mention it is long?), Lewis' breadth of…
Artless by Michael Lind
In his article in The Smart Set, Michael Lind writes about how Millennials are disinterested in the fine arts: "...Trends in American painting ever since the plate paintings of Julian Schnabel are not a big…
What has happened to art criticism?
In his Spiked article, What has happened to art criticism?, J.J. Charlesworth investigates the decline of art criticism over the past 30 or so odd years. He misses professional, culturally alert, independent, and historically informed criticism. Criticism has been…
‘Works of art may be offensive”
I read this laugh-out-loud piece in the NY Times. The blog post by Jeffrey Kindley is directed toward the college-age population of delicate hothouse plants who require trigger warnings on art and other cultural artifacts. Columbia…