I know of John Arthur. I know him as a strong advocate of realist painting. He has written about James Valerio's work, among others, and James is my friend of more than 40 years --he even painted my portrait which is in the Union League of Chicago art collection, considered one of the best private collections in the US. I know that realist art is often wrongly marginalized in contemporary culture yet there is an elite market and museum support for it. I am also a keen admirer of good realist art and I recognize its continuing importance in the panorama of modernist art. I have even written favorable reviews of realist painting.
What some critics fail to recognize is that good artists generally have an instinctive and appreciative understanding of other good artist's work, regardless of style or genre, media, subject, etc. I can recognize good realist art and the good realist artists can recognize good abstraction, or conceptualism, or what have you. I've met a bunch of the top artists over the years and they are all, ALL, very insightful and fully conversant with the diverse artforms currently practiced. Critics can be zealots. But I remain an impatient critic of those who mis-match art in order to abuse one aesthetic by the terms appropriate to another. I admire Arthur's credentials but then I also have a similar, if not better, batch of them -- since 1970 -- and thus feel I am qualified to comment, too. WC ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, January 6, 2013 9:44:58 PM Subject: Re: "Too little is asked and too little is expected of artists, critics, and curators...." John Arthur does a great deal of agreeable writing,almost always on representational painting-he wrote a book or helped to write one on Edith Wharton too. He has been doing this since 1970. I am not going to defend him, but I am surprised that he came out with any such strong opinions. He is usually very very nice and never says anything bad about the people he is writing about. He gives a yearly lecture as part of the MFA course Western Connecticut State University . He has also: He has served as an advisor to the national Endowment of the Arts, Department of the Interior, National Science Foundation, GSA Art and Architecture Program, and the Department of State.B Since 1975 he has advised private collectors, galleries, and museums in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.B Mr. Arthur will discuss the landscape tradition in American painting and his perspective on contemporary images of nature. (This lecture was rescheduled from September, 2011) I have been to the Upper Peninsula once and admire Abraham's ability to get so much out of the landscape there-but I suppose it's all in what you're used to. -----Original Message----- From: William Conger <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Jan 6, 2013 6:17 pm Subject: Re: "Too little is asked and too little is expected of artists, critics, and curators...." What's junk is to disparage one sort of art as a means to falsely elevate another. If one wants to praise an artist's naturalistic realism or landscape painting then it should be done in comparison with other works of the same genre. It's very specious, downright stupid, to make a claim for one sort of art by discrediting what does not have anything to do with it. Really, it's almost as bad as saying black person is inferior to a white person because the black person does not share the white person's ideals. I have no patience for stupid journalism. As for the Upper Peninsula, I am very familiar with all of it and agree that it's a beautiful area, I go there every year. The locale, any locale, of course, has nothing to do with validating aesthetic standards in art. wc ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, January 6, 2013 3:53:42 PM Subject: Re: "Too little is asked and too little is expected of artists, critics, and curators...." Junk which? The earnest John Arthur,worshipper of Estes etal or the unfortunate Richard Abraham who was driven to landscape painting by the beauties of Michigan's Upper Peninsula? Kate Sullivan -----Original Message----- From: William Conger <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Jan 6, 2013 9:57 am Subject: Re: "Too little is asked and too little is expected of artists, critics, and curators...." Junk. wc ________________________________ From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, January 6, 2013 2:53:29 AM Subject: "Too little is asked and too little is expected of artists, critics, and curators...." http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/jcontursi/art-richard-abraham
