Cultivating greater enjoyment of the visual arts can profoundly change your life.
Art in general–from painting, sculpture and drawing to literature, music and movies–packs that degree of life-enhancing power. But while some people at museums can experience speechless awe when encountering a beautiful painting or sculpture, others can muster only enough enthusiasm to say: “There were some pretty pictures and nice statues.”
Reflections on Monument Man’s ‘Heritage of Beauty’
Recently I read Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French, the long-awaited first authoritative biography of my favorite sculptor, who a New York Times writer hailed, at his death in 1931, as a “distinctively American ‘apostle of beauty.’” While a review was published that closely reflects what I wanted to write about the book, I’m still eager to share some thoughts on why that writer’s description is so apt.
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