I was relieved that my article Pandora's Box Part III was published in the Free Radical (magazine and online) in 2002, while this Scruton publication was released in November 2009.
Before Everything There Was Visual Art
Review of Slipper by Peter Cresswell
Slipper is one of my favourites by artist Michael Newberry, who like all great literary and visual artists has the ability to conceive and create scenes of total originality that – just like the great myths and legends that had the dramatic power to last thousands of years in the retelling -- once seen (or read) the world is inconceivable without them. In the simplest terms, such artists (and such myths) portray great and original scenes that so perfectly animate their theme the world was almost waiting for the artist to create them.
The Art of Illusion by Brett Holverstott
How Michael Newberry rediscovered the role of color in creating the illusion of depth and space
Ep 10 Da Vinci Drawing Newberry Aesthetic Evolution 12/12/2019
Da Vinci shows us in his drawing humanity, science, discovery, empathy, light, and beauty. All can be metaphors for life.
The Cult of Oblivion: CIA, Abstract Expressionists, and Kant
In the mid-20th century these three forces––Kant's philosophy, abstract expressionists, and the CIA––congealed ostensibly to champion freedom and originality, instead accomplished an undermining of art and consequently humanity. The connections and machinations are so complicated and obtuse it is hard to take them seriously, but it does make a difference in understanding them, at least in the sense of whether or not our culture evolves.
Pushing the Composition Envelope, Melissa Hefferlin Still Lifes
It is interesting to contrast Hefferlin with Picasso (he is one of my favorite artists). He created some of the best compositions of all time, but he frequently distorted the subjects – like the woman's face, body, and other objects – to make very clever compositional arrangements. But in distorting reality so much he threw the baby out with the bathwater. He was visually saying that reality is a chaos of distorted perspectives that are not true to real life. What is exceptional about Melissa is her ability to tweak these pattern motifs while keeping a realistic perspective, a feat of integration that Picasso doesn't match up to.
Secularization of Hell: The Illusionists, Curated by Michael Pearce at Studio Channel Islands with TRAC2019
What is the point of trying to overthrow one bad aesthetic movement if you are going to replace it with another?
First They Came for Black
A Rejuvenating Visit with Sculptor Tanya Ragir
Over the last two years I have developed a friendship with sculptor Tanya Ragir, a well-known artist in Southern California. Recently, I visited her in her art compound. She is a contemporary romanticist and she honors human nature through her drawings, reliefs, and free-standing figures. A feeling I get from many of her …
Continue reading "A Rejuvenating Visit with Sculptor Tanya Ragir"
Portrait of Duchamp
Portrait of Duchamp, ink on paper, 5 x 5"
From Modern to Postmodern Art and Beyond by Stephen Hicks, 1 and 2, 28 min
https://youtu.be/DP-kY-hAzlc https://youtu.be/itZGGJB-_M4 From Modern to Postmodern Art by Dr. Stephen Hicks, philosopher. From October 6th, 2003, The Foundation for the Advancement of Art presented this at New York’s Pierre Hotel.
Figure the Future, 66 min
Figure the Future By Michael Newberry Presented by The Atlas Society, 2008 The premise of this talk is that the heroic and beautiful nude is contemporaneously linked with human evolutionary advancements. The great nudes witnessed the development of individuals rights in politics, with reason replacing superstition in the humanities, and with authenticity.