Can Art Be Justified in a World of Suffering?
When beauty and compassion compete for our dollars
Is culture immoral?
The question came to me wandering Fort Worth’s wondrous Kimbell Museum. Jane and I were visiting Texas, celebrating our return to travel after an eighteen-month time out for bones to mend. Nothing rejoices us more than immersing ourselves in the art of the past. That mankind is capable of such magnificence bolsters hope. Our species is Longfellow’s
little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
The horrors we’re capable of glare from the headlines. Our souls felt in need of refreshment.
What could be better than the best of Bellini, Mantegna, Cranach, Titian, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Hals, Tiepolo, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Stubbs, Goya, David, Corot, Courbet, Turner, Delacroix, Manet, Monet, Caillebotte, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Miro, to name a few – not to mention Michelangelo’s first painting (when he was …
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