Aristos -- Archives

February

Thank You! To each member of that small but loyal band of Aristos readers who responded to our December appeal for support, we extend our heartfelt thanks. All who read these pages for free are in your debt. - The Editors

NOTES & COMMENTS

The Aristos Awards [About] [Citations: Daniel Graves (Painter/Teacher), Gerrard Barnes (Ordinary Person)]

Rattigan's Renaissance (On British playwright Sir Terence Rattigan [1911-1977]. Reprinted from the inaugural issue of Aristos, July 1982.) - Holly Hill

Terence Rattigan Centenary (News & Information) - The Editors

IN BRIEF: DENIS DUTTON (1944-2010), R.I.P.
Burying the Hatchet (On correspondence with the author of The Art Instinct, shortly before his untimely death) - L.T.

IN BRIEF: ART EDUCATION
Engaging Future Art Teachers (On a virtual classroom discussion with graduate students at Nazareth College.) - M.M.K

WebCommentary - L.T.

WORTH READING:

Beethoven Visits Cleveland: In 1958, the Colossus Speaks to an
11-Year-Old Boy (American Scholar, Spring 2010)

WORTH LISTENING TO:

Two by J. S. Bach, as performed by violinist Nathan Milstein (1903-1992): Sonata No.1 (audio) and Sonata No.3 (audio/color video), from Milstein's last concert at age 82. See also In Portrait, a DVD featuring Milstein.

WORTH VIEWING:

Portrait Profile of a Woman - Louise Camille Fenne [more]

November

BONNE 103^E ANNIVERSAIRE
JACQUES BARZUN! {JB103} 30 Novembre 2010

NOTES & COMMENTS

A Forum on Social Justice Art Education - M.M.K.

The Great Divide in Art Education - M.M.K.

The Ad Hom Instinct: A Reply to Denis Dutton (The Art Instinct) - L.T.

IN BRIEF: "Hijacking" Article Stirs Debate - The Editors

WebCommentary - L.T.

The Definition of Art: Ch. 6 (full text, corrected) of What Art Is

LETTERS:
Tracie Glazer, Visiting Instructor, Nazareth College, Rochester, N.Y.
Reply by Louis Torres to former NAEA president

WORTH READING:

Chopin's Small Miracles (Wall Street Journal, 3/3/10) - On the Preludes.

Reading in a Digital Age (American Scholar, Spring 2010) - On the novel and the Internet.

WORTH LISTENING TO:

Beethoven, Variations in F Major, Op. 34 (YouTube, 2/17/07) - Performed by Glenn Gould.

WORTH VIEWING:

Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (YouTube, 9/24/06) - Choreography by Frederick Ashton (1904-1988), danced by Tamara Rojo. Duncan (1877-1927) was a pioneer of modern dance. See also "Dance of a Goddess," Guardian, U.K. (2/21/04) - On Ashton and Duncan.

April

NOTES & COMMENTS

The Hijacking of Art Education - M.M.K.

BOOKS: What Makes Art Art? Does Dennis Dutton Know? (on Dutton's The Art Instinct) - L.T.

IN BRIEF (EXHIBITIONS): Art In an Intimate Setting (on Becoming and Artist: The Academy in 19th-Century France) - L.T.

Free-Market Art, c. 1555 (on Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice) - Megan Sleeper

WebCommentary - L.T.

December

NOTES & COMMENTS

EXHIBITIONS: Vermeer's Milkmaid: More Than Meets the Eye? - M.M.K.

The Curator Says It's About Sex - L.T. (on a controversial interpretation of Vermeer's Milkmaid)

WebCommentary - L.T.

THE BEST OF ARISTOS

[From the Print Archives]:

Ayn Rand's We the Living: New Life in a Restored Film Version (December 1988).
See Notes & Comments for information on the new two-disc Special Edition DVD.

WORTH READING:
Is Classical Music Trying to Be Fashionable? (Financial Times, 5/29/09)
Goodbye, Mr. Keating (The Chronicle, 7/7/06)

August

NOTES & COMMENTS

WebCommentary [six new entries] - L.T.

LETTERS:
John Silber, President Emeritus, Boston University
Shelbye J. Reese, Art teacher, Hart County (Ga.) H.S.

WORTH READING:

First Impressions - What does the world's oldest art say about us? (The New Yorker, 6/23/08). See also "The Earliest Artists" in "Robert Payne: Uncommon Guide to the World of Art" (Aristos, 12/93).

Disputations: The Untouchables (New Republic, 7/14/09) - Why it's blasphemous to alter Shakespeare's words for a modern audience.

July

NOTES & COMMENTS

What Hope Is There for Art Education? - M.M.K.

BOOKS: At His Father's Knee (review of Architecture of the Absurd: How "Genius" Disfigured a Practical Art, by John Silber) - L.T.

WebCommentary - L.T.

LETTERS: Samuel Knecht, Chairman, Hillsdale College Department of Art

WORTH READING:

Thomas Jefferson, Musician (Wall Street Journal, 7/2/09)

Old Masters: Overlooked Women Artists (Joan Altabe, Gadfly Online, 1/14/02)

June

NOTES & COMMENTS

What About the Other Face of Contemporary Art? - M.M.K. & L.T.

EXHIBITIONS: Painting Landscapes, Then and Now (Jacob Collins at Hirschl & Adler Modern) - L.T.

Museum Miseducation: Perpetuating the Duchamp Myth - M.M.K.

LETTERS: Julian Spalding, former director, Glasgow Museums, Scotland (responding to review of his Eclipse of Art, 11/07)

WORTH READING: The Myth of the Mozart Effect (from eSkeptic)

November

NOTES & COMMENTS

The Intrepid Mrs. Sally James Farnham: An American Sculptor Rediscovered - Michael P. Reed

Unveiling Sally James Farnham's Bolívar: A Youthful Memoir - Mariquita MacManus Mullan

Reflections on "Classical Realism" - Jacob Collins

Thought and Feeling in Art - M.M.K.

BOOKS: Artworld Maverick (review of The Eclipse of Art, by Julian Spalding) - L.T.

EXHIBITIONS:
Richard Serra's Fun House at MoMA - M.M.K
Night and Day at the Morgan - M.M.K.

LETTERS: Jacob Collins, painter

December

NOTES & COMMENTS

The Joys of Light Music - Jesse F. Knight

The Legacy of Richard Lack - L.T.

CRITIQUING THE CRITICS: Muddying the Waters of Classical Realism - L.T.

EXHIBITIONS:

Painting the Nude (Jacob Collins: Figures) - L.T.
Slow Painting? (Slow Painting: A Deliberate Renaissance)

BOOKS: Why Teach Art? (on Art and Cognition, by Arthur Efland) - M.M.K.

LETTERS: Kurt Leininger (on Edward Hopper vs. Andrew Wyeth)

THE BEST OF ARISTOS

[From the Print Archives]:

Bouguereau's Legacy, September 1982 - Richard Lack.
On the nineteenth-century French academic painter (see also Letters regarding Bouguereau, below)

The New Dawn of Painting, March 1986 - L.T.
Review of Realism in Revolution: The Art of the Boston Painters (see Note on images).

On Responsible Arts Criticism, August 1984 - L.T.
Letters to New York Times regarding critical bias against Bouguereau, and the absence of letters to the editor in the "Arts and Leisure" section (see Note on image of Bouguereau painting) - L.T.

August

NOTES & COMMENTS

EXHIBITIONS: Interpreting Goya - M.M.K.

CRITIQUING THE CRITICS: First Paragraphs - L.T.

June

NOTES & COMMENTS

He Felt Like Shooting Himself--A Postscript (more on the censure of a music critic and two composers) - L.T.

EXHIBITIONS:
Girodet--A Long-Forgotten Romantic - M.M.K.
John James Audubon--Rara Avis - L.T.

THE BEST OF ARISTOS

[From the Print Archives]:

The Child as Poet: An Insidious and Injurious Myth (on The Child as Poet: Myth or Reality? by Myra Cohen Livingston), January 1988 - L.T.

On "The Child as Poet: An Insidious and Injurious Myth (Letters by Jacques Barzun and others), December 1988

Robert Payne: Uncommon Guide to the World of Art (on his World of Art), December 1993 - M.M.K

January

NOTES & COMMENTS

The Other Face of "Contemporary Art"

EXHIBITIONS: Van Gogh at His Eye-Opening Best - M.M.K.

CRITIQUING THE CRITICS: "The Meaning of Life," "Life-Enhancing Ripples," and Other Inanities - L.T.

BOOKS: Tom Wolfe's Epiphany (on The Painted Word)- L.T.

LETTERS:
Ken Carpenter, President, Canadian Section, International Association of Art Critics
Currie McCullough, art gallery director
Michael Ome Untiedt, painter

December

NOTES & COMMENTS

DANCE: Mark Morris--a Postmodern Traditionalist - M.M.K.

CRITIQUING THE CRITICS: Santiago Calatrava: An Architect Who Makes . . . Sculpture? - L.T.

LETTERS:
Philippe Faraut, sculptor
Tom Lauerman

August

NOTES & COMMENTS

MUSIC: He Felt Like Shooting Himself (censure of a music critic and two composers) - L.T.

Modernism, Postmodernism, or Neither?--A Fresh Look at "Fine Art" - M.M.K.

THEATER: Doubtful Pulitzers - M.M.K.

The National Portrait Gallery: Captive to Postmodernism - L.T.

April