architect, is getting major commissions. The arrival of NewKlassical,
the website, directory, and nascent multimedia arts group, is another
major milestone in the emergence of the new movement.
The driving force of the whole movement is a desire to return to the
ideal of beauty. As James Cooper, editor of the American Arts Quarterly,
has said, “Beauty is not simply an optional aspect of art: it is the object
and purpose of art.” For new classicists, beauty cannot be detached from
either moral beauty or from what Shelley called intellectual beauty.
Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval theologian, argued that the funda-
mental characteristic of the divine was its beauty. One does not have to
buy his theology to find inspiration in the idea that beauty might be what
we need to draw us out of the despair of the twentieth century.
At a weekend retreat at the Blue Ridge home of the sculptor
Frederick Hart (creator of the Washington Cathedral “Creation” sculp-
tures and the Vietnam Memorial “Three Soldiers” sculpture) some of the
founding members of the movement put together a manifesto:
ARTRECENTERED: A MANIFESTOWe stand for:- The reunion of artist with public.
Art should grow from and speak to the common roots and uni-
versal principles of human nature in all cultures.
Art should direct itself to the general public.
Those members of the general public who do not have the time,
training, or inclination to craft and express its higher yearnings and
intuitions, rightly demand an artistic elite to be the culture’s
prophetic mouthpiece and mirror.
Art should deny the simplifications of the political left and right,
and should refine and deepen the radical center.
The use of art, and of cheap praise, to create self-esteem, is a
cynical betrayal of all human cultures.
Excellence and standards are as real and universal in the arts as
in competitive sports, even if they take more time and refined
judgement to appreciate.- The reunion of beauty with morality.
The function of art is to create beauty.A Changing of the Avant Guard 137