Today's Post gives Cindy Adams a much-deserved page-one teaser: "WTC: Why I hate this lousy movie." Inside, on page 14, Cindy--self-nominated as "New York's watchdog" (motion seconded! And carried!)--touches all the critical bases: * Filmgoing experience? "Slow-moving and formulaic." * Commercial prospects? Oliver Stone's "handlers...

The American painter Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) once groused about the “cadging—pettifogging [and] lickspittling” typical of the art scene of his day. Some verities are eternal. Friedman liked to vent his spleen by writing on the backs of his canvases. One note reads: “Modern aestheticism with...

The American painter Arnold Friedman (1874-1946) once groused about the “cadging—pettifogging [and] lickspittling” typical of the art scene of his day. Some verities are eternal. Friedman liked to vent his spleen by writing on the backs of his canvases. One note reads: “Modern aestheticism...

Can a work of art be independent of the time and culture in which it was created? Can it thrive on the characteristics inherent in its shaping—on aesthetic merit alone? In today’s theory-addled art world, no avant-gardist curio comes off the assembly line without a...

Examines aestheticism in the Oscar Wilde novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Describes how Wilde was widely considered the movement's leader. Provides biographical detail on the author.

An overview of the origin of aestheticism, which emerged out of artists' resistance to the utilitarian approach of the English bourgeoisie. Initiated by the French writer and poet Théophile Gautier, aestheticism was pushed forward by the noted critics Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde.