The Portrait Project

http://ericrhoads.blogs.com/the_portrait_project/

If you are not following Eric’s blog, let me quote from his description:

Portraits of FINE ART CONNOISSEUR magazine publisher B. Eric Rhoads. With the goal of creating new interest in academic painting and the study of portraiture; Rhoads commissions some of the top artists in the world to paint the portrait, which accompanies his column in every issue. This site chronicles the events and stories for each portrait.

For those of us who have followed the vagaries of artistic movements and development of tastes over the centuries, we live in an interesting time where craft and years of practice are often diminished in value and ignored by The Art Critic, an international arbitrator of Taste. Abstract art, by nature inoffensive and therefore safe for corporate consumption (more on this subject in a later blog), has become a mainstay around the world, and a bewildering array of styles and intellectualized works have been touted as seminal or trend setting. Every critic seeks to be the next Motherwell and find the newest savant. Many artists on the vanguard had adopted an “ugly” or raw, “unschooled” approach as their oeuvre. It is not my place to criticize these works as they are valid reflections of our culture and there are others who have more adeptly portrayed an adverse position, such as the position Jonathan Lethem takes in his new novel Chronic City.

However most galleries and regional museums have never embraced the avant-garde that commands the highest prices in today’s art world. Eric, as publisher, has led a burgeoning artistic response to the “high fashion” world of art. Simply put, Eric’s magazine is celebrating the beauty and craft of the academic artist and genius wherever they may be found, both in the past and in today’s art world. The magazine is well written, thorough and wide in scope, and for me, a monthly aspiration. For those of us who, because of family or career commitments must toil as “amateurs” and jealously look to those talented individuals studying for their MFAs or working full time as artists, this periodical is a wonderful glimpse of an alternative art world that still thrives today. The key fact is that there are many different tastes and there are many different ways to reach an artistic audience today. Even if you don’t care for the work of modern academic artists, the magazine is well worth a subscription for its historical portraits. And Eric’s blog is also a solid position to understand and address as an artist alive in this century—his support for up-and-coming portrait artists is to be applauded, no matter what art you embrace as your preference. Check this site and support his efforts.