Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said Friday he will oppose Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, saying he is not convinced that Alito will bring an impartial viewpoint to the court. Wyden, a Democrat, met with Alito on Wednesday and talked about executive power, legal precedents and abortion rights. “I cannot reconcile the seemingly moderate and amiable jurist of the past few weeks” with Alito’s two-decade record as a federal appeals court judge and official in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Wyden said Friday. “It is my conclusion that Judge Alito’s record portends a view on the power of...

It is now time to try to wrap up these small “lectures” on the history of art. Today is the tough day: Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, etc. I have to admit that I did not “get” these works until I was well within graduate school. For Pollock, it took the documentary by Hans Namuth in which I saw him painting. His work is not just a bunch of random splatters; instead, Pollock carefully dances around the canvas, and you can see the evidence of the “dance,” if you will, on the canvas. (This is the same time that Martha Graham...

I had such fun with my first Art Appreciation "class" last week. Thanks for all your support. For this second “class,” I’d like to discuss the basic ideas behind Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Please continue to post more images that appeal to you; it’s great to have a continuing dialogue. Let’s look at Impression: Sunrise by Claude Monet (1840-1926). This was done in 1874, and when it was exhibited, the slurred comments by a critic about it being only “an impression” gave the name Impressionism to the movement. Nowadays, however, we appreciate how it moves away from detailed realism to give...

Well, now that exams are over, grades are in, I’d like to bring some Art Appreciation ideas to Free Republic. Unfortunately, as artists have become more and more abstract, it really does take some study and/or education to understand what their ideas are. One doesn’t always need a snotty PhD art historian to do so, however. Once a person learns how to look at artworks, one can make one’s own decisions about form and content. (One can't just "appreciate" the blue in a painting to really understand what the painting is about.) Form and content: that’s what I emphasize in...