11 Apr 2012 | 2 Comments
Words on Words and Songs on Sound
My beat is art history and I’ve spent15 years reading nothing but non-fiction loosely or closely related to art. My knowledge of contemporary literature is tenuous at best; my familiarity with music worse but I have a belief ba
27 Feb 2012
Degas on Reflection and the Great Masters
At the entry to a small, mildly interesting exhibition of Rembrandt’s engravings and their influence on Degas, the Metropolitan Museum has highlighted the following quote:
“What I do is the result of reflectio
31 Jan 2012
Hollywood and the Man Within My Head
I’m always intrigued on perusing The Times Book Review by how many articles explain the object of their study in terms similar to those used here. It is no coincidence, of course. Every painter paints himself and all it entails is probably
05 Dec 2011
Urinary Colors
Perhaps Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, a photo of a crucifix in a bottle of his own urine, is not so unusual after all. I’ve just learnt that the red dyes used for high-status textiles in the Middle Ages (ecclesiastical, regal etc.)&n
27 Apr 2011
Ratatouille and the Great Masters (of all genders)
What do Raphael’s La Fornarina and Ratatouille have in common? Much more than you might think, their superficial differences disguising their fundamental similarity. The idea that significant art depicts a moment of its own making within t
15 Mar 2011 | 2 Comments
Leo Steinberg and Christ’s Organ
Leo Steinberg died two days ago in New York City at the age of 90. He was an art historian who wrote English clearly and had an unusual eye. His most important contribution was not, as is generally believed, his book Other Criteria in which he c
09 Mar 2011
How Museums Rob the Public
Do you know who owns the copyright on the Mona Lisa? No-one, of course, because Leonardo is long dead. Try telling that to the Metropolitan Museum, though. A few years ago they started to claim copyright on the images of everything in their coll
01 Mar 2011
A round of cheers for Michael Fried, please!
I have just finished reading Michael Fried’s The Moment of Caravaggio published last year. What a book! A compilation of his A.W. Mellon lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC he applies to Caravaggio the same kind of th
15 Feb 2011
Recent Reading
If anyone noticed the reduced activity on the site over the past ten days, forgive me. I was on a beach where, in between downpours, I got the chance to catch up on some reading. Three books in particular are worth recommending:
John Sp
09 Dec 2010
Exit the King
Anyone wondering why artists represent themselves as kings – why Fouquet painted himself in 1450 as Charles VII or Ingres as Napoleon or even Lucian Freud as Queen Elizabeth II - might like to read Eugène Ionesco&rsqu
04 Dec 2010
Steve Martin’s Artworld Fiasco
People may have more schooling nowadays but they seem no more educated. According to the New York Times, Steve Martin was at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan this week to talk about his latest novel on the artworld and there was a large audience o
26 Nov 2010
When art was not art….
Here’s a thought for the day from an excellent introductory text, Herbert Kessler’s Seeing Medieval Art (2004). “The production of art”, he writes of medieval images, “was understood as a spiritual act, inspired by
25 Oct 2010
Pamela H. Smith’s Body of the Artisan
Much of the new information on this website, the revelations that surprise, come not from literature, art historical writing or aesthetic theory, but from visual images themselves. It may seem odd but I learnt much of what I know by studying Edo
21 Oct 2010
Inner Tradition Reading List
Here, as promised, is a highly subjective Introductory Reading List for those who would like to learn more about The Inner Tradition, that strain of thought common to mystics in all religions that believes divinity is inside us, not out. It is i
07 Oct 2010
Bronzino in Florence
The current show of Bronzino’s paintings at Palzzo Strozzi in Florence is a marvel, beautifully organized and arranged. With 70 Bronzinos, a room-full of portraits and vast tapestries designed by the master, it is a sumptuous display
28 Aug 2010
Meaning in Architecture
The theory presented on this website, that there is meaning in visual art hidden from view but plainly apparent to a creative mind, is paralleled in architecture by the little-known idea that buildings can have meaning too. Today we are so convi
26 Jul 2010
Why do Serious Art Books Fail to Sell?
The major museums nowadays are like zoos, each year becoming more and more crowded. The trend is so strong that, despite a rise in entry fees and a deep recession, there was a significant increase in museum visitors last year. Yet though art its
23 Jul 2010
Re-thinking support
Think about this......In the San culture of Southern Africa the rock on which their images are created is thought of as a threshold to the spirit world. It is more than likely that the Neolithic painters of Europe thought so too, as David Lewis-
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