FINE ART CONNOISSEUR: Celebrating the Traditional

This morning the newsstand welcomes our newest publication, Fine Art Connoisseur. The magazine's Web site proclaims that it "educates affluent buyers about art, artists and art movements, giving them tools to make and execute major purchase decisions." Fine Art Connoisseur, a monthly published in West Palm Beach, FL, is also a good read, filled with articles about the work of rising contemporary painters and what makes them tick (and paint). It's an art magazine with a strong point of view, as you can easily see from the editorial in the January issue by publisher B. Eric Rhoads: "Fine Art Connoisseur believes millions of people like you love premium-quality, traditional realism, and are disturbed by the direction art has taken at the hands of a very few who are in defiance of most art-loving people. In spite of the dominance of contemporary art and the avant garde, significant evidence shows that the greater body of art enthusiasts is taking a U-turn back toward the classics that focus on truth and magnificence instead of anger, disgust and shock. This magazine is for those who seek this finery and crave to expand or refresh their edification. It's for the informed, new-generation collectors and enthusiasts who are rediscovering art works considered by the modernists as passé." Leafing through the issue, my ears ringing from the publisher's fusillade, I encountered a series of gentle, informative and well-illustrated articles on a number of diverse subjects. One was a thoughtful meditation on how Dutch landscape painting of the past 300 years was influenced by such factors as economic development, the influx of immigrants attracted by religious and political tolerance, and the Dutch age-old struggle to reclaim land from the sea. I found a fascinating history of how the European academic tradition took hold in the People's Republic of China in the 1950s (it came with all those Russian advisors), only to be stomped down during the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. But it created a group of Chinese painters who have since found their way to North America, where they have settled and developed their own individualistic styles, diverging from the Socialist Realism as well as the traditional Chinese painting techniques they absorbed when young. I also enjoyed the issue's "hidden collections" feature, this one about how former U.S. ambassador to Denmark John L. Loeb Jr. has become an avid collector of late 19th century Danish art. An annual subscription (12 issues) to Fine Art Connoisseur is $39.99 from the publisher; you can get a sample copy from us for $2.59.