Ralston College | Alexander Stoddart: A Conversation in His Studio @RalstonCollegeSavannah | Uploaded March 2021 | Updated October 2024, 23 minutes ago.
Should art be beautiful? This forbidden question guides Stephen Blackwood's conversation with eminent sculptor and aesthetic luminary, Alexander Stoddart. Stoddart describes, in his usual incandescent fashion, his aesthetic awakening and his views on the failings of modernist and contemporary art. He also speaks about iconoclasm, about art’s battle with nature, and about the power of beauty to still the will. Finally, he offers parting advice for young artists and other seekers of meaning and beauty. The conversation took place in Stoddart's studio in Scotland.
Artists, Art, and Writings Mentioned in this Episode:
The paintings of Eisenhower, Churchill, and Hitler
The Buddhas of Bamayan
Venus de Milo
Richard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde
Bust of Beatrice in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence
The Statue of Liberty
Mount Rushmore
Gutzon Borglum
Christ of the Andes
The Angel of the North
Jackson Pollock
Desiderio da Settignano
Michelangelo: Staircase in the Laurentian Medicean Library; Medici tombs; Medici Chapel
Michelangelo: The Slaves
Giambologna
Adolf von Hildebrand
Copenhagen, especially the work and museum of Bertel Thorvaldsen
Hermann Ernst Freund
Arthur Schopenhauer
Antonio Canova
Lorenzo Bartolini, Plaster Cast Gallery at the Accademia Gallery
Links of Possible Interest:
“Called to Poetry: Hardy, Heaney, Hennessy”, by Elaine Scarry. In “Something Understood: Essays and Poetry for Helen Vendler”, ed. Stephen Burt and Nick Halperin, University of Virginia Press, 2009, pp. 302-320.
Ralston College
https://www.ralston.ac
Ralston College Short Courses
https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-short-courses
Stephen Blackwood
stephenjblackwood.com
Timeline
0:00 - Introduction
2:18 – Stoddart’s origins and his call to art
6:09 – His view of modern aesthetics
15:53 – The reasoning behind iconoclasm
21:08 – Beauty; the war between art and nature
29:57 – Modernist art, self-absorption
36:02 – Advice for young artists seeking meaning and truth
41:59 – General advice: sweep the floors in life
45:26 – Examples for young artists
51:55 – On preparing to answering one’s detractors
#RalstonCollege
Should art be beautiful? This forbidden question guides Stephen Blackwood's conversation with eminent sculptor and aesthetic luminary, Alexander Stoddart. Stoddart describes, in his usual incandescent fashion, his aesthetic awakening and his views on the failings of modernist and contemporary art. He also speaks about iconoclasm, about art’s battle with nature, and about the power of beauty to still the will. Finally, he offers parting advice for young artists and other seekers of meaning and beauty. The conversation took place in Stoddart's studio in Scotland.
Artists, Art, and Writings Mentioned in this Episode:
The paintings of Eisenhower, Churchill, and Hitler
The Buddhas of Bamayan
Venus de Milo
Richard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde
Bust of Beatrice in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence
The Statue of Liberty
Mount Rushmore
Gutzon Borglum
Christ of the Andes
The Angel of the North
Jackson Pollock
Desiderio da Settignano
Michelangelo: Staircase in the Laurentian Medicean Library; Medici tombs; Medici Chapel
Michelangelo: The Slaves
Giambologna
Adolf von Hildebrand
Copenhagen, especially the work and museum of Bertel Thorvaldsen
Hermann Ernst Freund
Arthur Schopenhauer
Antonio Canova
Lorenzo Bartolini, Plaster Cast Gallery at the Accademia Gallery
Links of Possible Interest:
“Called to Poetry: Hardy, Heaney, Hennessy”, by Elaine Scarry. In “Something Understood: Essays and Poetry for Helen Vendler”, ed. Stephen Burt and Nick Halperin, University of Virginia Press, 2009, pp. 302-320.
Ralston College
https://www.ralston.ac
Ralston College Short Courses
https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-short-courses
Stephen Blackwood
stephenjblackwood.com
Timeline
0:00 - Introduction
2:18 – Stoddart’s origins and his call to art
6:09 – His view of modern aesthetics
15:53 – The reasoning behind iconoclasm
21:08 – Beauty; the war between art and nature
29:57 – Modernist art, self-absorption
36:02 – Advice for young artists seeking meaning and truth
41:59 – General advice: sweep the floors in life
45:26 – Examples for young artists
51:55 – On preparing to answering one’s detractors
#RalstonCollege
