Recent links of note:
“The King of culture: why Charles III will be good for the artsâ€
Simon Heffer, The Telegraph
During his reign as the Prince of Wales, Charles, a patron of classical architecture, defended the traditions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century design against the “monstrous carbuncles†of modern architecture. Simon Heffer speculates in The Telegraph that the onetime architectural critic will engage with culture as monarch in a much more hands-on manner than his late mother did. Charles actively enjoys painting, sponsors many arts charities, and regularly attends classical music performances, theater and opera productions, and exhibition openings with the Queen Consort, “who shares many of his cultural passions.†Heffer reports that Charles is Britain’s most culturally devoted monarch in three hundred years, and that the world of art and culture is in need of his “high-profile leadership” to preserve and guide it.
“Six reasons why artist’s artist Paul Cézanne is hailed as ‘greatest of us all’â€
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian
Tate Modern, opening its flagship exhibition on Paul Cézanne next week, quotes the artist on its website: “With an apple, I will astonish Paris.†It is for ability to astonish and other remarkable achievements that Monet famously claimed Cézanne to be the “greatest of us all.†Cézanne possessed an influence that spanned generations and movements, from Picasso to Hemingway. Jonathan Jones succinctly breaks down six arguments for the painter’s reputation, from his reworking of space and perspective to the “sheer quiddity†of his art.
“Stravinsky’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’: An Opera That Surprisesâ€
Emma Schneider, The Wall Street Journal
In this week’s Masterpiece column, Emma Schneider explores the reasons why Igor Stravinksy’s neoclassical opera The Rake’s Progress (1951) deserves its position in the canon. Less iconoclastic than the “explosion of unrestrained emotion” of The Rite of Spring (1913), The Rake’s Progress still refrains from repeating musical cliché in a number of ingenious—and less unsettling—ways, Schneider writes. From its baroque music to its “truly unexpected” plot twists, Stravinsky’s opera masterly draws inspiration from classical traditions yet offers an experience that still transcends predictability.