Salons

I ran across a call for submissions to a "Realism-only" salon exhibition in New York city. My knee-jerk reaction was... who still hosts or shows in traditional Salons, anymore? I clicked on the website and was slapped with the standard slew of anti-modernism/anti-abstraction slogans. Once again, my initial reaction was to stop reading and relegate the "organization" to the ever-growing pile of "I don't know art, but I know what I like" doctrine.

Then I stopped and noticed something... the images on the site were very nice, very accurate from a technical standpoint.. and even interesting from the perspective of composition... unlike "other" movements I've mentioned in this blog, these hacks actually had talent... in fact maybe they weren't hacks at all.....

The Art Renewal Center is building an encyclopedic collection of essays, biographies and articles by top scholars in the field.

ARC is the Eye of the Storm, at the core, hub and center of a major cultural shift in the art world. With a growing body of experts, we are setting standards to become ARC Approved™ for artists, art schools, systems of training, museum exhibitions and historical scholarship, to bring guidance, direction, goals and reality to an art establishment that has been sailing rudderless for nearly a hundred years.

Additionally, the Art Renewal Center is a non-profit educational organization committed to reviving standards of craftsmanship and excellence. Only by gaining a full command of the skills of the past masters can we create the masters of tomorrow. This is a step forward for our culture. Experimentation and creativity can only succeed and prosper when built on a solid foundation of past accomplishments, with the tools which empower artists to realize their visions.

Nothing has been more restricting and debilitating than the theories of modernism, which eliminated these tools, along with the skills to employ them. We are providing a forum for artists, scholars, collectors and the public to appreciate great art, and to recognize that they're not alone in their suspicions about the emptiness of modern and postmodern art. These suspicions are fully justified by the overwhelming body of evidence and historical facts. – Art Renewal International

On their website there are lists of ARC-approved schools, artists and instructors... this is the main road-block for me, I find it difficult not to question the dominion of of a self-imposed authority or critic. Once again, I doubt I'm hard-lined-enough to ever fit within their rigid structure... as I've mentioned before fundamentalism in any form scares me... I still fall within the camp of 'do what ever you want artistically, but have a masterly discipline and knowledge of the traditional techniques'. In the end it's all subjective. Art, Philosophy, Religion, BBQ (wet vs dry ribs...) - DN