Edwin Austin Abbey, “King Lear,” Act I, Scene I, 1898. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 54.25 x 127.25 in.
Poetry, said T.S. Eliot, enlarges our sensibilities to a degree greater than painting or sculpture. The reason lies in the power of words to raise our hidden feelings to the conscious ... Read More »
Tom Shannon, Drop, 2009. Aix en Provence, France.
“What’s it about?” A common question from people looking at a work of art, but a bit of a puzzler for the creator of a sculpture, a painting or a novel. One answer is an appeal to the idea that sparked ... Read More »
György Madarász, Scrap, 2018. 64 x 56 in; Fragment, 2018. 64 x 52 in. Oil on canvas.
Does a work of art have a cognitive element? Many will respond with a resounding “yes,” equating aesthetic value and the skilled infusion of constructive materials with an intellectual principle. The alternative ... Read More »
Caterina Verde, Remote Viewing. Scene from a work in progress, 2018. Video. © Caterina Verde
For artist Caterina Verde, an epiphany occurred before an Yves Klein painting. “There was so much energy coming from it that I thought it was going to knock me over,” she recalls of her encounter ... Read More »
Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1852-1855. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 96.25 x 199.5 in.
The novel, like jazz, resists definition. Even the best of lexicographers can offer nothing more substantial than “an extended fictional narrative.” And little wonder, given the variety of works that have represented the genre in ... Read More »