Recent Articles about Art Worth Reading

Julius LeBLanc Stewart (American, 1855-1919) Reading Aloud (c. 1833) Oil on canvas 28 by 51.5 inches (Private Collection)

Lately, I’ve had too many good things to read with too little time to read them. Below, are a few articles that have made impressions. If you know of any more, please share them:

• Oh, Tell Me the Truth about Beauty. (Prospect Magazine) A reivew of Beauty (Oxford University Press) By Roger Scruton, a philosopher, with practical thoughts on the importance of beauty today.
• Why the Dickens Do We Despise Victorian Art? (Daily Mail Newspaper) An article by the author and  TV documentor Jeremy Paxman. He has produced a new film with an accompanying book discussing late-nineteenth-century British history through the eyes of its painters (e.g. Leighton, Alma-Tadema, Millais, Watts, Waterhouse).
• How Art Killed Our Culture. (Guardian Newspaper) A critical look at  Pop Art’s influence on cultural decline. Well written and, depending on your feelings about Pop Art, either justified or another grossly overstated attempt to scapegoat something with our current financial predicament.
• For Madrid’s Prado, a New Building and a New Guidebook. (International Herald Tribune Newspaper) An account  of the exciting new espansion to one of the world’s best–if not the best–museums. The new wing will focus exclusively on nineteenth-century painting.
• Does art make good collateral? (Telegraph Newspaper) In times of limited cashflow, many art collectors are putting up their art in lieu of other assets. An exploration of whether or not doing so is a good idea.