03 Jan 2011 | 1 Comments
Why painters paint themselves
I spend so much time demonstrating that conventional perception of art is mistaken that I seldom explain why every painter paints himself is such a profound idea. It is, in essence, the basis of consciousness. Every time we recount a childhood s
29 Dec 2010
Me! Me! Me! and the Identity Museum
“Me! Me! Me! That is the cry, now often heard, as history is retold. Tell my story, in my way!” That’s how The New York Times begins an account of a new phenomenon, the “identity museum”.1 An “identity museum&
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
24 Nov 2010
Why do artists fib?
The secrecy with which artists create is an enduring topos but not one that those interpreting art pay much heed to. The stories that are particularly intriguing are the ones in which artists seem about to explain their meaning only to end up mi
23 Nov 2010
Art and Eckhart
“Knowledge of Meister Eckhart’s work is indispensable to the understanding of medieval art, even though he has been almost totally neglected by those who like to call themselves ‘historians of art.’”
So wro
05 Nov 2010
Manet as Tintoretto
A large number of Manet's early copies after other masters are either self-portraits or depictions of other artists. Art is often the apparent subject. One of his copies is Tintoretto's Self-Portrait (above), of which Carol Armstrong, a Manet sp
31 Oct 2010
Analyzing Freud and the Queen
Britain's press went nuts when Lucian Freud gave the Queen a tiny portrait of herself, just 9" x 6", and notably ugly at that. She had spent hours posing for him over 19 months. She could not have been amused. Now we reveal on the site, for
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
05 Oct 2010
Painting Himself
I'm always on the look-out for contemporary artists who fit the mold and many do. Cindy Sherman, for instance, has made a career out of photographing herself as other people. Then along comes Liu Bolin. As you can see from the image above, h
30 Sep 2010
Mona Lisa’s Bad Hair Day
After breakfast this morning I read an article on Tudor coinage – God knows why –but what a lucky break! Who would ever have thought that England’s Bloody Mary and the Mona Lisa would have anything in common? But, first, some backgro
04 Sep 2010
The Error of “Errors”
Allowing an art lover to interpret art on their own is the purpose of this site and we reveal many ways to do so. This tip, though, is so effective at finding a route into the artist's meaning that I reveal with it some hesitation: the artis
03 Sep 2010
Window of a Roman Art Gallery
I have been arguing for years that the concept every painter paints himself is alive and well in the art world, even if art scholars are unaware of it. So I was particularly delighted when I came across this notice posted on the window of an art
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
10 Aug 2010
Ambiguities in Art
Everyone who has ever studied art knows that one of the common characteristics of great masterpieces is that they do not make sense. For instance, just as Velazquez in Las Meninas paints a picture from an impossible viewpoint so the mirror in Ma
27 Jul 2010
The Traditionalism of Contemporary Art
Giulio Paolini (b. 1940) is an Italian artist living in Turin. His sculpture, Three by Three, is currently being exhibited at the new MAXXI museum in Rome and it demonstrates, with startling clarity that good contemporary artists today are just
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-
22 Jul 2010
Don’t you find it odd that….?
Don’t you find it odd that, according to the conventional paradigm, a visual artist active between the Renaissance and 1900 had only two choices? He or she could either illustrate a story (biblical, historical, literary etc.) or copy natur
02 May 2010
Letters in the Art of All Periods
There are certain long-lived traditions within the history of art-making that, if known, add immeasurably to the viewer's interest and understanding. Among them is the subtle metamorphic inclusion of the artist's initials, one of the many lit
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