Gary Schwartz

Visual Arts: Chopped liver at Woburn Abbey

April 4, 2012
Posted in ,

The world press has announced that a painting of an old man in Woburn Abbey, England, has been newly discovered to be an authentic Rembrandt. Gary Schwartz is incensed that the abbey is practicing such flagrant spin, and that the press feeds it to us so uncritically.

Read More

Visual Arts Feature: Museum Hopping Through Europe

March 25, 2012
Posted in , ,

The Fuse’s man in Europe is a museum junkie. During the second half of 2011, he got to lots of new destinations, and he found new museums almost everywhere he went. This installment is about Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Belgium.

Read More

Visual Arts Feature: Me and Philip Guston

January 30, 2012
Posted in ,

Our discussions always took the same turn. Philip Guston attempted to convince me that artists like Piero della Francesca and the cave painters of Lascaux were in the first place abstractionists.

Read More

Visual Arts: Pieter Saenredam Comes Home Again

December 28, 2011
Posted in ,

The places where Pieter Saenredam worked were never the same after he committed them to paper and paint. His single known painting of a building in Amsterdam -– of the old town hall –- became iconic during the life of the artist.

Read More

Visual Arts: Where’s Theo? Is that Theo van Gogh in the picture?

June 29, 2011
Posted in ,

Nothing would please me more than to believe the announcement made last week by the Van Gogh Museum, saying that one of the paintings in the museum that has always been called a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh is in fact a portrait of his brother Theo

Read More

Visual Arts: In Rembrandt’s Footsteps

June 15, 2011
Posted in ,

How many painters were taught by Rembrandt? How big was his school? Well, that is a matter for debate — to echo Donald Rumsfeld, there are the known unknowns. Then there are the unknown unknowns

Read More

Visual Arts: Cleaning the Eighth Wonder of the World

May 10, 2011
Posted in ,

Before we hit the ground, I reversed my attitude and became a fan of the restoration of the Dutch royal palace on Dam Square, Amsterdam. I could not fault the decisions that had been taken.

Read More

Visual Arts: My Main Man Mani — A Persian Preacher Who Made Art and Founded a Religion

March 10, 2011
Posted in ,

I have a weakness for cosmic audacity. The history of religions, which I studied before art history, is full of examples that give me a deep inner thrill.

Read More

Visual Arts: New Year’s Resolutions and On Augmenting Art

January 6, 2011
Posted in ,

In practical terms the Virtual Reality helmet has still not lived up to its potential. Another device has come along, however, that can convey as much information, though without the total visual immersion of Virtual Reality. This is nothing other than the humble cell phone . . . By Gary Schwartz. In 1997 I was…

Read More

Visual Arts: Improving on the Unfinished Past, Or Schwartz on the Radio

July 26, 2010
Posted in , ,

Although I was quadruply nervous—about my historical and art-historical knowledge, my Dutch, my speaking voice, and my presence of mind—I enjoyed the tapings for the radio and have no reason to think that I committed any terrible gaffes. By Gary Schwartz My late Sunday mornings over the past decades have been torn between quiet work…

Read More

Recent Posts