Stoddard on real and fraudulent art

From Andrew Cusack via Hilary White (no relation), Alexander Stoddart on art in an interview with The Scotsman:

Modern art is “rubbish”, narcissistic, snobby, devoid of skill, ignorant of taste, gripped by “nostalgia for the future”. But it goes deeper than that. It’s a difference of opinion about what art should do. Art, he says, has always been about “trying to alleviate the pain of existence”. Modern art “collaborates with misery as opposed to trying to oppose it”.

“A painting by Titian is like a Leningrad, holding out against the forces of the world. Even if they’re having to eat rats in there, they still will never surrender to it. Whereas the art of Tracey Emin is a complete capitulation to the world. Cutting a shark in half and putting it in a tank of piss is just art giving up. I find it very odd when they describe art as challenging, because I always thought art was meant to calm you like a lullaby, not challenge you like some skinhead in an underpass.”

Those monks could draw

"Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages", a show currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Mew York City. Here's a sample of 9 of the 50 pieces; see especially St Matthew's robe, rendered solely in colored lines. Here's the Met's webpage for the show.

Saint Mary Magdalene, apostle to the Apostles

Did you know that Mary Magdalene is one of the patronesses of the Order of Preachers?

Mary Magdalene by El Greco

Mary Magdalene by Giotto

Mary Magdalene by John da Fiesole (Fra Angelico), a Dominican friar.