The Art Renewal Center is an organization dedicated to classical realism in art, as opposed to the Modernist developments of the 20th century. It exists primarily as an online art gallery. This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Online means being connected to the Internet or another similar electronic network, like a bulletin board system. ... The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. ...

The Center was founded in 2000 by a group of artists, art collectors, historians, and enthusiasts, and is chaired by Fred Ross. Its collection of images of artworks includes many works of Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Romantic and French Academic art. It includes some Impressionist artists such as Monet and Édouard Manet, but does not include any of the Post-impressionists, such as Gauguin or Cézanne, nor any other Modernist school such as the Surrealism exemplified by Salvador Dalí and Yves Tanguy. The group is critical of much 20th-century art on the grounds that it demonstrates weak technique and conveys ideas ineffectually if at all, and focuses on false, obscure, or trivial subject matter, in addition to being weird for weirdness' sake. Exceptions include such 20th-century artists as Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, and a number of contemporary realist painters featured in its Living Masters List. 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... North side of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo - carriage courtyard: all the stucco details sparkled with gold until 1773, when Catherine II had gilding replaced with olive drab paint. ... Wanderer above the sea of fog by Caspar David Friedrich Romanticism is an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century Western Europe. ... Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel, 1863 Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities. ... Oscar-Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 - December 5, 1926), French impressionist painter. ... Not to be confused with Claude Monet, another painter of the same era. ... Post-Impressionism is a term applied to a number of painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose style developed out of or reacted against that of the Impressionists. ... Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 - May 9, 1903) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. ... Paul Cézanne (IPA: , January 19, 1839 – October 22, 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Yves Tanguy Indefinite Divisibility 1942 Surrealism[1] is a movement stating that the liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or... Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí Domènech, Marquis of Pubol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), popularly known as Salvador Dalí, was a Spanish (Catalan) artist and one of the most important painters of the 20th century. ... Indefinite Divisibility 1942 Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955) was a surrealist painter. ... The Dinky Bird, by Maxfield Parrish, an illustration from Poems of Childhood by Eugene Field, 1904. ... Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th century American painter. ...

The ARC abides by a concept of art grounded in the art of the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo era. Philosophers from the Enlightenment are already criticized for bringing about a change in attitude towards art. To the ARC, oil painting is the summit of artistic achievement. Their concept of art is exemplified by this quote from their FAQ:

Specifically, the way that art accomplishes its expression is through the manipulation of a medium as a selective recreation of some aspect of reality. That is to say that the artist "fictionalizes" reality in order to highlight some idea he thinks is important, and to diminish ones he considers irrelevant to his intended message.

The latest great modern artists to be discussed on their site are the likes of Picasso, Rothko and Jackson Pollock, and they are uniformly dismissed. Later post-modern artists (like Jeff Wall, who achieves their objectives as to what is art in his carefully studied and arranged transparencies, which are however in the dismissed medium of photography) are not mentioned. A young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 - April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art. ... Mark Rothko (September 25, 1903 - February 25, 1970) was a painter, often classified as an abstract expressionist (although Rothko vociferously denied being an abstract painter). ... Pollocks One: Number 31, 1950 solely occupies an entire wall at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. ... Jeff Wall (born 1946) is a Canadian photographer Wall, Jeffrey (Jeff) David, artist (b at Vancouver 29 Sept 1946), is best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. ...

The group actively promotes the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, believing him to be not only the greatest French artist of the nineteenth century, but also "unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses." Several Art Renewal Center members are involved with the "William Bouguereau Catalog Raisonné" project. William-Adolphe Bouguereau, self-portrait (1886). ...

The Art Renewal Center also encourages the development of traditional painting styles and methods such as instruction by atelier for painters, and has held an annual ARC Salon Competition since 2003. Daniel Gerhartz won the Best in Show for 2004,^[1] with Paul G. Oxborough winning the Best in Show for 2005.^[2] Donato Giancola won first place at the figurative Category in 2004. Art studio A studio is an artists workroom. ... Donato Giancola (born enter date, 1967 is a multiple award winning American artist specializing in science fiction and fantasy illustration. ...

Criticism of the ARC

The main criticism of the Art Renewal Centre as a project focuses upon its rejection of modernist art, which many see as philistine. In promoting artists like Bouguereau over modern masters, the ARC could be seen as failing to understand that technique changes over time, and that it is unfair to suggest that a painter such as Pollock was any less powerful in his way than the great painters of the nineteenth century. In fact, if art is to be honest and express the moods of its time, it has to undergo change, just as it had undergone many centuries of change before Bouguereau. To try and turn art back to the style of a former period is overly conservative, and detrimental to the integrity of art.

In addition, oil painting is only one of many methods of producing art, and it could be seen as narrow-minded to try and promote it above all others.

References

1. ^ 2004 winners
2. ^ 2005 winners

External links

• Art Renewal Center
• GoodArt Website