Diplomatic relations between the camps of Waldemar Januszczak and Roger Scruton are especially hostile. The BBC’s Modern Beauty season has recently been the stage for a pitched battle between the two, and the debate has spilled over into other mediums, too. Each presents his own views on beauty and art in an impassioned way, occasionally descending into ad hominem, and naturally coming no closer to a resolution on the matter at hand. [Read more →]

Can art ever be truly timeless? It’s an almost universally accepted idea we have of great art that if it is truly great, it will “stand the test of time”. What does that mean, exactly? Simply that it still appears just as fresh, insightful and powerful as it did when it was first created. The point we can infer from that is that these great works of art are not slaves to fashion, but strike somewhere near the heart of human nature, which is unchanging over thousands of years—a fact which we know primarily from the classics. When we read an old play that is a relic more than it is a classic, that is usually because the artist was so seduced by some particular artistic fashion that was sweeping his part of the world at the time, that he forsook a true depiction of human nature in its favour. That seduction must be strong, because proportionally speaking, the amount of classics the world has produced is close to nil. [Read more →]

The whole subject of whether videogames can be considered art is a fascinating one, and one which has only recently begun to be taken seriously. The problem is, however, that it has not yet been taken anywhere near seriously enough, on either side of the divide. [Read more →]