Sowing Stars and a Little Bit of Space Dust
For the artists that didn't turn away they would have to cope with, defend, and manage resentment. For their art they would breath deep, fortify themselves, and let go of certainty and control and dive into a vast alternative universe; exploring where no mind had gone before.
Horses Heads, Venus of Willendorf, and Lion Man, 40-35,000 BC I hope everyone is doing okay in these early stages of quarantining. Heartbreaking. Around the start of it I came up with the concept to write this book on aesthetics. I am dividing my time painting, writing the book, and, it seems, washing dishes. I …
Beyond Obstacles, Malevolence, and Ignorance Willendorf Venus c. 28,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE Discovere 1908 near Willendorf, by Josef Szombathy, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria I have been thinking about writing an art book filled with stories, anecdotes, speculation on prehistorical art, real life experiences, and the knowledge of what is it is like to strive …
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.
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.
How Michael Newberry rediscovered the role of color in creating the illusion of depth and space
Da Vinci shows us in his drawing humanity, science, discovery, empathy, light, and beauty. All can be metaphors for life.
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.
Michael Newberry 