In addition to images--organized in one section by art-historical category--Artchive offers illustrated critical essays on topics of interest. Annoying pop-up and banner ads soliciting financial support detract from this otherwise excellent site.
As its name implies, Artcyclopedia attempts to be comprehensive in its coverage of art history. In addition to images of traditional, modernist, and postmodernist work, it offers articles as well. A unique feature of this site is the listing of multimedia resources on many of the artists featured there--such as audio interviews and films and videos that can be viewed online in their entirety.
Though it calls itself an "art dictionary," ArtLex explains that it defines terms related not to "art"--because the term is too "Eurocentric"--but to "visual culture," which it states is increasingly used. That and other semantic flaws notwithstanding, this is a valuable resource, especially as it includes images to illustrate many of its more than 3,000 definitions and mini-articles.
Featuring the largest collection of high-quality images of paintings on the Internet, in addition to substantive articles on art-related issues, the Art Renewal Center is dedicated to reviving high standards of craftsmanship in painting and sculpture, and to reversing the lamentable course of modernism and postmodernism. Don't be fooled by the images featured on the Center's home page, which seem to imply that the site is devoted exclusively to nineteenth-century academic painters. The roster of more than 2,500 painters and sculptors in its ever-expanding Museum is amazingly comprehensive-- ranging from Old Masters and Impressionists to living artists working in traditional styles. Currently, there are more than 25,000 images of art works on view.
A "daily digest of arts, culture, and ideas," ArtsJournal is indispensable to anyone with a broad interest in the arts--we consult it every day. Providing links to articles from more than 200 English-language print and online periodicals throughout the world, it also publishes its own features, including a lively letters section and the art blogs of noted critics.
This efficient resource modestly describes itself as "an updated report of news and reviews." Links to the websites of major newspapers, journals, and magazines take readers to articles and essays on a wide range of topics, ranging from philosophy, literature, and culture to history, politics, and "gossip."
Already the second-largest source of art images on the Internet, with over 15,000 in its database, this ambitious website aims to be an integrated provider of information on all aspects of the humanities. Among the features that make it useful are its alphabetical lists of both artists and artworks, and the compact page devoted to each work, with a thumbnail image. One can also search for paintings depicting various subjects, such as "child" or "beach." What makes the site truly unique is its interactive nature. Visitors can become members (which we recommend) and contribute or edit content in a myriad of ways, as well as take part in forums. There are a few rough edges here and there, but this visionary project by a computer-science graduate student is still a work in progress, getting better all the time.
The best source for locating out-of-print books for purchase.
This site provides numerous links to philosophy resources on the internet, sorted by category--as well as its own special on-site features.
We use this popular search engine so often that we've made it our home page. Its "How to Search" section is helpful, but we urge readers to experiment on their own. Try stringing together single terms (or names) and phrases, putting selected items in quotation marks, if need be, to refine the search. Uppercase letters are never necessary. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" option is most useful when you know exactly what you want.
This reference website includes citations from some two dozen dictionaries, ranging from language dictionaries to the CIA World Factbook 2002. If you value old definitions of some words, as we do, you might find Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary from 1913 especially useful. Keep "Search all dictionaries" as the default entry in the "Use dictionary" slot and then enter the word sought. Definitions from Webster's 1913 appear automatically, followed in many cases by definitions from other sources. As a test, enter a word with multiple meanings, such as "objective" (without quotation marks).
The arts coverage of the Times is the most extensive of any periodical, and readers can have free online access to it for one week following the publication of each issue (a small archival fee is charged thereafter). Registration is required, but one can opt out of receiving e-mail from the paper and its advertisers.
This well-organized, amazingly comprehensive site provides links relevant to the various disciplines in the humanities--including art & art history, literature, music & dance, and philosophy--as well as links to resources of practical value to academics and other visitors.
The Wayback Machine is a comprehensive free online library that archives all websites created since 1966, even if defunct. New pages appear in the archives between six and twelve months after they are "collected." To access the archives of websites--aristos.org, for example--there is no need to register. One need only enter a web address.
The Paris-based WebMuseum had ceased updating in 1996, but is active once again, and remains one of our favorite sources of art images and information on the web. The enthusiasm of its creator, Nicholas Pioch, is evident, beginning with his welcoming "Bienvenue!"
Most of the organizations listed below have goals broadly compatible with those of The Aristos Foundation, but we do not necessarily endorse every aspect of their policies or activities.
American Academy of Liberal Education
Founded in 1992, AALE is a national accrediting association "dedicated to strengthening and promoting liberal arts education" by setting curricular standards and evaluating undergraduate institutions to ensure that they comply with those standards. Jacques Barzun is Honorary Chairman and a founding member of the Board of Trustees.
American Society for Aesthetics
ASA is an association of academics and independent scholars promoting study, research, discussion, and publication in aesthetics and arts criticism. Its official website ("Aesthetics On-Line") includes articles, and reviews of books, on these subjects, as well as links to other aesthetics-related resources on the internet.
We greeted the news of this art history organization's founding in 1997 with enthusiasm, for it was meant to serve as a counterbalance to the radically politicized College Art Association. As its website sadly reflects, however, AAH seems barely to exist. We remain hopeful that it will one day become active.
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics
Founded in 1994, ALSC is a refreshing alternative to the Modern Language Association's increasing politicization of literary studies. It aims "to foster appreciation of the literary imagination, of the value of literary study, and of a shared literary culture."
The National Sculpture Society (not accessible in Netscape)
Among the founders of the National Sculpture Society in 1893 were Daniel Chester French and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Its purpose is "to promote excellence in figurative and realist sculpture." Among other activities, NSS sponsors exhibitions of work by its Professional Members. It also publishes Sculpture Review. Subscribers automatically become Subscriber Members of the society. An Associate Member category is open to both sculptors and allied professionals.
Formerly the Institute for Objectivist Studies, TOC is devoted to research and education in Objectivism, the philosophy originated by Ayn Rand, while encouraging "the discussion of ideas in an atmosphere of free and open inquiry."
Though he is one of America's greatest sculptors, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) is virtually ignored in art and art history courses in academia. Nearly everyone is familiar with his seated Abraham Lincoln [more] at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., yet few among the general public even recognize his name. This remarkable website--the only online resource devoted to the sculptor's work--is a labor of love by Douglas Yeo, the bass trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who photographed the sculptures himself. The images, taken from a variety of views in situ, with numerous closeups, are excellent. (Also of interest on these pages are numerous music-related items and links, but our recommendation does not pertain to any of the other material on the site.) Photographs of French's work by art historian Lee Sandstead are also very fine: Memory, Metropolitan Museum of Art (in the American Wing's Engelhard Court), and the Alice Palmer Memorial (Wellesley College).
Sadly neglected today, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880-1980) was a sculptor best known for her exuberant depictions of the youthful female form. As noted by Beatrice Gilman Proske in our June 1984 issue devoted to her life and work, Frishmuth (who studied in Paris and New York, learning anatomy by dissecting at a medical school) used dance poses and movements to "express the joy of life." She also created works in a contemplative spirit. [more] [more] Nine photographs (by art historian Lee Sandstead) of Frishmuth's greatest work--the bronze larger-than-life female nude entitled The Vine (1921), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing, Engelhard Court--are not to be missed, especially the three taken from above, which give one a chance to see her face, which is not ordinarily visible.
The dancer Desha Deltiel (1892-1965) was Frishmuth's favorite model. In our Frishmuth issue, noted above, we reproduced three nude photographs of Desha--one with her sister, another alone, and a third with her husband, also a dancer. The George Eastman House of Photography and Film archives (see Photography Collections Online) include twenty black & white photographs of Desha by Nickolas Muray--most notably, one of her posing for The Vine.
Modern dance choreographer Mark Morris (b. 1956) is one of today's premier creative artists. Deeply inspired by a broad spectrum of music, not least the great classical tradition, he draws upon a variety of dance genres, including ballet, folk, and modern, to create dances that are infinitely varied in mood and theme--ranging from the light-heartedly playful and witty to the grandly sublime. One work in particular, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed il Moderato--set to a song cycle by Handel based, in turn, on poems by Milton--is justly regarded as a masterpiece of contemporary choreography.
The Essential Vermeer is a superb resource. Comprehensive in its documentation of everything known about the painter's life and work, it will richly reward scholars, students, and general readers alike. The website is beautifully designed, the images are splendid, and the commentary is informed and informative.
TO BE COMPLETED
A semi-annual, peer-reviewed, nonpartisan journal devoted to the study of philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand's work and thought, JARS publishes papers from every discipline and from a variety of interpretive and critical perspectives.
This monthly neo-conservative review will appeal to anyone interested in the arts, and in the many controversies now besetting Western culture. We must note, however, that we part company with its editors and art critics on the contentious issue of "abstract art"-- which they champion and we argue is not art at all.
The official magazine of The National Sculpture Society, Sculpture Review is also of interest to general readers. Profusely illustrated, it is dedicated to figurative work in all its forms--from classical, or traditional, to folk, tribal, and modern.
This most extensive collection of outdoor figurative sculpture in America is set in beautifully landscaped gardens comprising the former acreage of four rice plantations near the South Carolina coast. The Brookgreen collection includes splendid works by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (Aristos, June 1984), Anna Hyatt Huntington (Aristos, March 1988), and Daniel Chester French (Aristos, October 1983), as well as Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Aristos, October 1983), John Quincy Adams Ward, Frederick Hart, and other nineteenth- and twentieth-century notables.
References: Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture [Vol. I], by Beatrice Gilman Proske, new ed., revised and enlarged (Brookgreen Gardens, 1968); Vol. II, by Robin R. Salmon (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993); A Century of American Sculpture: Treasures from Brookgreen Gardens, Introd. by A. Hyatt Mayor, rev. ed. (Abbeville Press, 1988); and American Masters: Sculpture from Brookgreen Gardens (1996), which features smaller, indoor works from the collection.
Since opening to the public in 1995, New York City's Dahesh Museum of Art has focused exclusively on the work of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European academic painters and sculptors--among others, Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, all of whom taught or influenced succeeding generations, including the some of the best realist artists working today. The museum's permanent collection, housed in handsome new quarters since September 2003, comprises some 3,000 items (including drawings, prints, photographs, and books). A wide variety of programs and events is offered for the pleasure and edification of both children and adults.
GALLERIES
Ann Long Fine Art (Charleston)
This gallery represents some of the best classically trained realist painters and sculptors now active (see Notes & Comments, August 2005). Regrettably, it has begun carrying work--not all qualifying as art in our view--by a small group of prominent modernists from the past.
Gandy Gallery (Atlanta)
The artists represented by the Gandy Gallery include several Classical Realists who have been cited in Aristos since its inception as a print journal in 1982--among them, Richard Lack, Stephen Gjertson, and Richard Whitney. An online bookstore offers a variety of interesting titles for both artists and art enthusiasts.
John Pence Gallery (San Francisco)
Grand in size and scope, the John Pence Gallery represents an impressive roster of academic realist painters. Its smaller group of sculptors, however, includes two whose work is scarcely art.