Art Renewal. They write from a
very traditionalist, realist, anti-modern art position which amuses me and
which I find somewhat agreeable, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I agree
with everything there. But they do have a lot of art I like, especially Lawrence
Alma-Tadema. I discovered him in the Getty Museum in LA, which itself
looks like it could be from one of his paintings. I'm a sucker for realist
levels of detail in exotic circumstances, and his archeologically correct
Roman paintings are straight down my alley. Plus what he does with light and
metal and marble is amazing. "Marbellous", to quote Punch. Spring
is what the Getty has, though I don't think it has the same effect on my
screen. (They also had a book on him, which helped seal my interest.) Phidias
Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon really captured me when I saw it: the
technical detail, the research into the original colors (and the shock of
seeing them, for one still used to "Greco-Roman means pure white") and the
notion, accurate or not, of people seeing the newly painted frieze like people
see art galleries today. With rope barrier. Finally, Expectations
will do as well as any to show his control of light. And yes, I think the
Getty looks kind of like that.
I also like John
Waterhouse, introduced to me by a friend, although it was this site which
told me when he was. This exhibits my being a sucker for pretty girls in
medieval clothes. And then there's Norman
Rockwell, whom I grew up despising by osmosis, and most of whose art still
doesn't do that much for me. But they have some interesting text on and
samples of his art, such as
A
Family Portrait, or The
Problem We All Live With.
Nymphes
et Satyres, Bouguereau
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