Art Links
by William Eric McFadden

revision 20231007-1716

Links to sites not related to art can be found in my Bookmarks.

Read my disclaimer.

"Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves they have a better idea."--John Ciardi

"Why should I paint dead fish, onions, and beer glasses? Girls are so much prettier."--Marie Laurencin

Art Deco (YouTube channel)--"Here, you'll find deep dives into classic art and discover hidden secrets behind famous paintings"

Le Louvre--the official site
Artchive by Mark Harden--includes over 2,300 scans from more than 230 artists
Artcyclopedia by John Malyon--"The Guide to Museum Quality Art on the Internet"
WebMuseum, Paris

Taschen--art book publisher
TeNeuses--art book publisher
Twin Palms--art book publisher

By Chris Witcombe in What is Art? What is an Artist?:

Today the questions What is Art? and What is an Artist? today are not easily answered.

According to William Rubin, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, "there is no single definition of art." The art historian Robert Rosenblum believes that "the idea of defining art is so remote [today]" that he doesn't think "anyone would dare to do it."

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, states that there is "no consensus about anything today," and the art historian Thomas McEvilley agrees that today "more or less anything can be designated as art."

Arthur Danto, professor of philosophy at Columbia University and art critic of The Nation, believes that today "you can't say something's art or not art anymore. That's all finished." In his book, After the End of Art, Danto argues that after Andy Warhol exhibited simulacra of shipping cartons for Brillo boxes in 1964, anything could be art. Warhol made it no longer possible to distinguish something that is art from something that is not.

What has finished, however, is not artistic production, but a certain way of talking about art. Artists, whoever they are, continue to produce, but we, non-artists, are no longer able to say whether it is art or not. But at the same time, we are no longer comfortable with dismissing it as art because it fails to fit what we think art should be (whatever that is).

We struggle with this because we have been taught that art is important and we're unwilling to face up to the recently revealed insight that art in fact has no "essence." When all is said and done, "art" remains significant to human beings and the idea that now anything can be art, and that no form of art is truer than any other, strikes us as unacceptable.

Chris Witcombe's What is Art? What is an Artist?

Eolake Stobblehouse's WhatMeArtist?--an online course for anybody working creatively

Impressionism

"Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough."--Vincent Van Gogh

"... to me Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived." — the curator, Doctor Who, s5e10


"Starry Nights" by Vincent van Gogh
Impressionism at WebMuseum, Paris
Impressionism Painters at WebMuseum, Paris

The Vincent van Gogh Information Gallery by David Brooks -- new URL

Disclaimer:

This is a collection of links that I have found useful or interesting, either professionally or personally. It is maintained for my own use, and is subject to change at any time. No claims are made to completeness, accuracy, or competence. No endorsement of any site, individual, product, or corporation is intended. With these caveats, anyone is welcome to browse these links or to use this page.

Attributions:

certainly I'd like to go down in history cartoon--copyright 1955 John Ruge; page 78 of Ever Since Adam and Eve by Alfred Andriola and Mel Casson, 1955 McGraw-Hill

Starry Nights from The Vincent van Gogh Information Gallery.