Why Beauty Matters - A BBC Presentation

Just came across this stirring presentation circulating through the online arts community. A stirring case for why "Beauty" matters in our world. And with it, a condemnation for false art, or post-modern ugliness. I don't agree with it in whole, but a compelling presentation and food for thought. What say you?

I recently acquired this picture from a West Coast estate. It features a marvelous, panoramic view of what is either Gloucester Harbor, or perhaps Falmouth on Cape Cod. It is signed by the artist, Amundsen. If the name sounds familiar, you may be acquainted with Roald Amundsen, the artist's great-uncle and famed polar explorer. Hjalmar "Cappy" Amundsen (1911-2001) was actually born with the surname Caspar Hjalmar Emerson III, but admired his uncle, and legally changed his name to Amundsen. "Hjalmar" had come from the explorer's right-hand man on expeditions.

Later as a painter on Cape Ann, Hjalmar Amundsen signed many of his paintings with yet another name! For many years he painted under the pseudonym J.J. Enwright. Sometimes, paintings executed in Sag Harbor on Long Island, where he eventually spent the last 50 years of his life, were signed simply "Sagg". For a time, he was an illustrator for Motor Boat Magazine.

This wide angle look at a working New England harbor is the largest Enwright/Amundsen I've seen. At 24" x 48" if feels like installing a bay window on the Atlantic. Crisp detail in the foreground includes three working fishermen in two dorys, and a trawler moored at the pier. A ketch glides on port tack in the middle distance left, and a hazy far shore is illuminated under pink clouds. Classic New England.

A Southern Storm on Lake George

Here is detail from a small N.A.Moore painting that is crammed with interesting detail. In this compact sketch that the artist likely completed en plein air from a perch near Bolton Landing we see the spiny ridge of the Tongue Mountain Range at the left, a deep look down the lake into a sunnier Northern Basin, the canyons of Shelving Rock & Black Mountain to the right. This is the classic look at Lake George - looking northward through The Narrows. In the intermediate field, an oarsman guides his Adirondack boat over a glassy lake. See the entire picture, including dramatic storm clouds at cartwrightfineart.com. It is not uncommon for Lake George to experience distinctly different weather patterns in the South and North portions of the lake. In 1897, Nelson Augustus Moore captured the dramatic differences.

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