Letter to ARC and Review
May 21, 2012
| Among such websites (art), yours is the one that I consider the most visionary, inspiring, organized, resourceful and beneficial. I am a Professor of Medicine. However, my true aspiration was to be an artist... I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to you and to all of your collaborators at Art Renewal Center, for being brave enough to take a stand against the status quo of contemporary "artworks", which had become so abstracted, deconstructioned, degenerated and finally, decayed and dehumanized that they had become anything but art and had in fact been declared "dead". Thank you for not only lamenting the loss of beauty, dignity, intelligence, harmony, sensivitiy and sensibililty in art, but also for actively promoting a return to the ideals and techniques of the Old Masters. Thank you for remembering and honoring the tragically wronged masters of the past, especially William Bouguereau. (I spent months on a reproduction of "le Goûter", only to realize that it wasn't just a breathtakingly superb painting, but rather a most elegantly understated and poetic expression of the fragility and evanescence of youth). Thank you for caring enough about the past and the future of art and humanity to set up a site where seekers of beauty and knowledge can find hope, solace, inspiration and support. Thank you for refusing to accept the death of art and for fighting for her revival. With my sincere best wishes and regards, Cigdem Gokce, MD, MRCP(UK), Professor of Medicine; Florence Nightingale Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey To read the full letter and Amazon Review, click here. |