WHISTLER AND ART FOR ART’S SAKE Part Three Whistler was unusual among artists of his time in that he answered back to critics and took pains to establish his own discourse on his own art. His unique way of painting, without the meticulous detail of the...
WHISTLER AND THE PEACOCK ROOM Part Two The term “artistic freedom” may seem like a given but for nearly a century after Kant established the principal, “freedom” was rarely practiced. But Whistler took the concept seriously and set out to test...
THE ACADEMY AND THE AVANT-GARDE IN FRANCE The artists of the French Academy and the artists of the French avant-garde are often presented as being protagonists, but, in fact, each group defined itself in terms of the other. The French Academy was the bastion of the...