By Claudia Moscovici

Why is the book needed? Who will want to buy it and why? How is it different from other books on the same topic (what’s unique about your idea)?

As a student and teacher of the French Enlightenment and Romanticism, I have always admired the role of the philosophes and salonnières, intellectuals who created, promoted and popularized art and culture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although the fields have advanced and become much more specialized since that era, I strive to do my part to promote the arts. This book developed from my popular art blog, https://fineartebooks.wordpress.com, which I started in 2010. It is envisioned as a unique, textual culture salon rather than as a traditional textbook or scholarly monograph. It introduces readers to some of the most artistically diverse and exciting trends in contemporary painting, sculpture and artistic photography in light of intellectual and art history. It also presents two new and noteworthy international culture salons, Panodyssey and Art Explora, which build upon the French Enlightenment cultural and artistic salon tradition. Reflections on Art and Culture is written, first of all, for a general audience interested in art history, aesthetics, the processes of cultural consecration, Impressionism, Modernism and contemporary art. Second, it can also function as a college textbook in courses on art and intellectual history (particularly on Enlightenment thought, the Romantic movement and modernism), similarly to my earlier book, Romanticism and Postromanticism. (Lexington Books, 2007). Third, this book is meant to be distributed by art galleries as well as by the participants of the new culture salons, particularly Panodyssey and CREA: Creative Room European Alliance, in international presentations on art and culture.

2.Imagine that your book is in our next catalog. Begin with a title that captures the tone and spirit of your book. What would the ideal catalog copy be? Emphasize special features or sections using bullets

Reflections on Art and Culture: From Diderot’s Salons to Panodyssey and Art Explora offers a series of art reviews of some of the most exciting and artistically diverse trends in contemporary painting, sculpture and photography, presented in light of art history, aesthetics and intellectual history. It also introduces two of the most promising cultural ventures that build upon the Enlightenment tradition of the salons: Panodyssey (founded by French entrepreneur and music executive Alexandre Leforestier) and Art Explora (founded by two of the leaders of Paris’s top museums, Frédéric Jousset and Bruno Julliard). In emphasizing a wide range of styles of art, this book also covers a critical blind spot, by including contemporary artists influenced by Realism and Romanticism, who are extremely popular with galleries, buyers and the general public but tend not to get the attention they deserve from art critics and museums of contemporary art. At the same time, in the spirit of promoting artistic pluralism, Reflections on Art and Culture also presents much-discussed trends, such as Damien Hirst’s neoconceptual art, as well as some of the most popular artistic photographers in the world, who successfully straddle the domains of marketing and art.

The tripartite structure of the book

The main purpose of Reflections on Art and Culture is to offer readers the textual embodiment of a culture salon in three main ways:

Part I: The New Culture Salons: Art Explora and Panodyssey

In the first section of this book, I introduce what I consider to be two of the most promising new international culture salons: Panodyssey and Art Explora.

·Panodyssey was founded by Alexandre Leforestier, a notable French entrepreneur and artistic director with a diverse background in music and digital innovation. Leforestier studied music at the conservatory in Rennes and later at the Sorbonne in Paris. He served as Managing Director of Abeille Musique from 2001 to 2014. In 2002, he launched the jazz record label Bee Jazz, producing over 100 albums, including collaborations with notable musicians such as Boulou & Elios Ferré, Alain Jean-Marie and Robert Wyatt. In 2007, Leforestier cofounded Qobuz, a high-resolution music streaming service, expanding the company’s operations throughout Europe. A few years ago, Leforestier came up with the innovative concept of a democratic, multilingual, multicultural and interdisciplinary cultural blog, Panodyssey.com, where artists in every field and from every country can collaborate together on joint projects, complementing and translating each other's works. This platform provides a digital environment free from advertisements and fake content, in conformance to European regulatory standards, such as GDPR and the Digital Services Act. Panodyssey organizes cultural events through its sister organization, also headed by Leforestier, CREA (Creative Room European Alliance), which is funded in part by the European Commission.

·Art Explora was founded by Frédéric Jousset (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Jousset) and Bruno Julliard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Julliard), two of the leaders of the French art scene. Jousset is the CEO of the prestigious Beaux Arts Magazine, a monthly art journal started in 1983, which covers the history of art in all fields from antiquity to today. Julliard, a former First Deputy to the Mayor of Paris, brings to this project his considerable experience in the arts. Between 2014 and 2016, he was in charge of cultural institutions as well as assuming the role of Chairman of Paris Musées of 14 major Parisian museums, including the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay. As leaders of the French art scene, Jousset and Julliard not only influence the art world but also are forward-thinking visionaries. In 2019, Jousset became the Chairman and Julliard became the Director of Art Explora. Art Explora aims to bring the arts to a wider audience, not only online but also through its exciting Art Explorer tours. Since about 60 percent of the world’s population lives close to coastlines, Art Explorer, “the largest catamaran in the world,” features immersive artistic events that can be attended by 200 people per day. Art Explorer strives to include local communities, hosting cultural events that welcome both artists and art lovers. Art Explora has a rich digital and educational platform, collaborating with the Sorbonne and with the Cité internationale des arts à Montmartre to create courses in the history of art and host numerous artists in residence. It also offers several artistic prizes: 3 prizes of 50,000 Euros and a “public prize”, of 10,000 Euros, which empowers the viewing public to vote for their chosen artists. Mobile, versatile and innovative, Art Explora launched a “truck-museum,” in collaboration with Panodyssey was founded by Alexandre Leforestier, a notable French entrepreneur and artistic director with a diverse background in music and digital innovation. Leforestier studied music at the conservatory in Rennes and later at the Sorbonne in Paris. He served as Managing Director of Abeille Musique from 2001 to 2014. In 2002, he launched the jazz record label Bee Jazz, producing over 100 albums, including collaborations with notable musicians such as Boulou & Elios Ferré, Alain Jean-Marie and Robert Wyatt. In 2007, Leforestier cofounded Qobuz, a high-resolution music streaming service, expanding the company’s operations throughout Europe. A few years ago, Leforestier came up with the innovative concept of a democratic, multilingual, multicultural and interdisciplinary cultural blog, Panodyssey.com, where artists in every field and from every country can collaborate together on joint projects, complementing and translating each other's works. This platform provides a digital environment free from advertisements and fake content, in conformance to European regulatory standards, such as GDPR and the Digital Services Act. Panodyssey organizes cultural events through its sister organization, also headed by Leforestier, CREA (Creative Room European Alliance), which is funded in part by the European Commission. Both of these promising cultural salons are relatively new. Part of the goal of my book is to introduce them to an American audience.

·Part II: Going Back to the French Origins of the Culture Salons

The concept of the culture salon has a rich intellectual history. In the second part of the book, which includes more conventionally scholarly essays, I go over some of this cultural history, starting with Diderot's Salons and discussions of 18^th-century art and aesthetics, to Zola's championing Manet and the Impressionist movement, to E. H. Gombrich's engaging discussions of the history of art and modernism, to Arthur Danto's groundbreaking essays in art and aesthetics that champion pop and conceptual art. I have chosen to focus on these movements because they represent pivotal moments in the history of art, elucidated by the leading aesthetic philosophers and critics who shaped the direction of the art world. I include here relevant art historical chapters on the artistic revolution begun by Manet and the Impressionists in painting and by Rodin and Camille Claudel in sculpture and continued with the rise of modern art, as illustrated, among other examples, by Constantin Brancusi’s innovative sculptures.

Part III: Noteworthy Trends in Contemporary Art

My art blog, https://fineartebooks.wordpress.com/, was itself envisioned as an online culture salon. It was interactive from the start, in the sense that I wrote not only about the art I preferred, inspired by Romanticism and Realism, the subject of my previous book on art, Romanticism and Postromanticism (Lexington Books, 2007), but also responded to the requests of artists who contacted me via my blog or, more often, via LinkedIn. In this manner, my art criticism expanded and evolved to include some of the most exciting international artists--painters, sculptors, and photographers--working in all styles of art, from postromanticism to Art Nouveau to conceptual art. In the third and final section of the book I present, through a series of longer reviews as well as brief art blurbs, several stylistically diverse, noteworthy contemporary painters, sculptors and artistic photographers that I believe make a significant contribution to the world of art. I include here reviews of the much-discussed neoconceptual art of Damien Hirst; of Daniel Gerhartz’s popular realist paintings; the modernist works of sculptor Ivan Minekov and his daughter, the painter Paola Minekov; Alexandru Darida’s new Romanticism; Edson Campos’s postromantic pastiches; Leonardo Pereznieto’s postromantic sculptures; M. C. Escher’s mathematical lithographs and of Richard Burlet’s new Art Nouveau portraits. I also present the works of several innovative artistic photographers that successfully straddle the domains of marketing and art. These include the poetic and spiritual images of Noell S. Oszvald; Jonathan Root’s memorable celebrity portraits; Barna Nemethi’s new Dadaist photography and artistic videos; the sculptural photography of Vadim Stein; the surrealist photography of Andrew Shushvalyuk and Iren Lesik; the Escheresque photography of Sebastian Luczywo; the stunning images of Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva and the photographic journey through art history offered by Thomas Dodd’s painterly images. My selections are offered as illustrative examples of different kinds of valuable international art that deserves our attention. Given the enormous number of talented artists in the world and the fact that I’ve been very selective in the art I chose to write about, I by no means claim to be exhaustive or comprehensive in my art reviews. Moreover, this book is not merely a transcription of the blog. Rather, like Arthur Danto's collection of some of the art reviews published in The Nation, under the title Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present (University of California Press, reprint 1997), my book selects only a few of the most salient reviews I have published on my art blog in order to highlight some of the best contemporary international artists.

Underscoring the link between artistic freedom and stylistic diversity

Placing emphasis on artistic diversity, or pluralism, is a key element of my approach to art criticism and aesthetics and an intrinsic part of the contemporary culture salons, Panodyssey and Art Explora, which I present in this book. I believe that only when we value many different styles of art, do we, art critics, viewers and consumers of art, promote true artistic freedom. Artistic freedom and aesthetic value are interrelated. Art that is not considered valuable by the artistic establishment—art critics, museum curators, aesthetic philosophers and art historians—usually doesn’t get the opportunity to be viewed and evaluated by the general public. Such art doesn’t make it to museums of contemporary art like the Guggenheim. It also doesn’t get discussed in the art sections of influential newspapers and art magazines or blogs. Analogously, literature that is not considered valuable by the publishing establishment—literary agents, editors, publishers and critics—usually doesn’t get a broad readership. Artistic freedom, unlike personal freedom, isn’t just about creating whatever one wants in the privacy of one’s home or studio without the fear of being arrested or even killed. Although this basic personal freedom is a necessary condition for artistic freedom, it’s not sufficient. Artistic freedom also entails a correlate liberty: namely, the public’s opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of artistic and literary styles. In my estimation, artistic pluralism entails a democratization of choices, whereby a wide range of diverse and distinct styles are given a real chance to be considered, discussed, debated and sometimes bought by the general public by being displayed in museums of contemporary art, taught in courses, reviewed by art critics and presented on art and culture blogs. This is precisely what I have attempted to do in this book and in my art criticism in general.

Identify titles on the same topic published in the last 5-7 years. These will be your book’s competition. Can you give us a sentence or two that would make us want to publish your book even though those are out there?

·The Story of Contemporary Art by Tony Godfrey

·Conversations About Creativity: Art, Writing, Music, Filmmaking, Theater, Education, Science & the Synergy of Imagination (Creative Thinking Series) by Ellen Palestrant

·Art to Come: Histories of Contemporary Art by Terry Smith

·Conversations about Sculpture by Richard Serra and Hal Foster

·Carole A. Feuerman: Fifty Years of Looking Good, Claudia Moscovici, John Yau, John.T. Spike

·After the End of Art: Contemporary art and the Pale of History, updated edition, by Arthur C. Danto with Foreword by Lydia Goehr

·Impressionism: Reimagining Art by Norbert Wolf

·Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present by Arthur C. Danto (older book that influenced mine most, both structurally and intellectually)

Reflections on Art and Culture differs from the books listed above in that it’s envisioned as a textual contemporary culture salon, originally begun in 2010 on my popular art blog https://fineartebooks.wordpress.com/, which reviews a plurality of styles of international painting, sculpture and artistic photography in light of art history, aesthetics and intellectual history. This book also introduces two of the most promising new international culture salons today, which build upon the French Enlightenment interdisciplinary tradition of the philosophes and salonnières: Panodyssey and Art Explora. Both seek to democratize art and culture by reaching a broader public but they achieve this shared goal through different means. Panodyssey, started by French entrepreneur and music executive Alexandre Leforestier, welcomes artists, writers, cinematographers, architects, playwrights and musicians from all over the world to participate in online collaborative ventures on Panodyssey.com as well as in CREA (Creative Room European Alliance) events sponsored in part by the European Commission. Art Explora, started by two of the most prominent leaders of the French art scene, Frédéric Jousset and Bruno Julliard, aims to reach a wider public through its Art Explorer catamaran art tours of coastal areas throughout the world, focusing in particular on places where people do not have easy access to the top galleries and museums.

May we have a 1-3 paragraph biographical statement about you written in the third person? Emphasize your education and experience that’s relevant to this book topic.Please include other articles or books you’ve published related to this topic. The point here is to position you as an expert in this area.

Claudia Moscovici is an art critic and novelist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She obtained her A.B. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in the same field from Brown University and has taught courses on the French Enlightenment, Romanticism, and art and aesthetics at Boston University and the University of Michigan. She's the author of the bestselling art and aesthetics textbook, Romanticism and Postromanticism (Lexington Books, 2007) and coauthor of the art book on Carole Feuerman’s pioneering hyperrealist sculptures, Carole A. Feuerman: Fifty Years of Looking Good (University of Chicago Press, Scheiddeger & Spiess, 2020). She is also a founding partner of Panodyssey.com, an international art and culture collaborative venture started in 2019 by French entrepreneur and music executive Alexandre Leforestier, IT innovator Yann Rigo and marketing entrepreneur Valentin Bert. Due to the popularity of her art blog, https://fineartebooks.wordpress.com/, she has been voted by artists one of the top five “most famous female art critics in the world” on ranker.com, the largest international database of opinions, with more than 1 billion votes.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Aesthetic Value and Artistic Freedom

Part I: The New Culture Salons: Art Explora and Panodyssey

1 Frédéric Jousset and Bruno Julliard: From the Beaux-Arts Tradition to the Innovations of Art Explora

2 Panodyssey: The 21^st Century Democratic Culture Salon

Part II: Going Back to the French Origins of the Culture Salons

3 Diderot’s Aesthetics in the Salons

4 Romantic and Modern Aesthetics: On Originality, Individuality and Autonomy in Art

5 E. H. Gombrich and Arthur Danto: The Challenges Posed by Modern and Contemporary Art Criticism

6 The Innovations of Impressionism

7 The Legacy of Modernism: Subversion and Tradition

8 Shaking Things up in the Art World: The Biennale de Paris and the Salon des Refusés

9 Art and Emotion

10 The Sculptures of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel: The Embodiment of Emotion

11 The Rise of Modernist Sculpture: Why We Love Brancusi

12 An Homage: Darida Paints Brancusi

Part III: Trends in Contemporary Art

13 From Eros to Thanatos: Damien Hirst and Postromanticism

14 Leonardo Pereznieto’s Postromantic Sculpture

15 Richard Burlet and the New Art Nouveau

16 Daniel Gerhartz: The Beauty of Representational Art

17 The Postromantic Art of Edson Campos

18 Bulgarian Art: The Sculptures of Ivan Minekov and the Paintings of Paola Minekov

19 M. C. Escher: When Art Intersects with Mathematics

20 The Escheresque Photography of Sebastian Luczywo

21 Poetic and Spiritual: The Photography of Noell S. Oszvald

22 Barna Nemethi’s Photography: A New Dadaism Springs from the World of Marketing

23 Jonathan Root’s Memorable Portraits

24 The Surprising and Stunning Photography of Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva

25 The Imaginative Photography of Andrew Shushvalyuk and Iren Lesik

26 Vadim Stein’s Sculptural Photography

27 The Images of Thomas Dodd: A Photographic Journey through Art History

28 The Value of Art: From Bourdieu’s The Field of Cultural Production to David B. Guenther’s The Art Dealer’s Apprentice

29 Conclusion: Intoxication: Artistic Fame and the Magnetic Persona

Bibliography

About the Author

Advance Praise for Claudia Moscovici’s Reflections on Art and Culture

In her newest book, Reflections on Art and Culture, noted art historian and author, Claudia Moscovici shines a fascinating light on the nature of the art world in the first quarter of the 21st Century. Presenting superb historical research, and combining it with unique aesthetic insights, Dr. Moscovici has created a refreshing and lively narrative. Her analysis of numerous artists as diverse in style and philosophy, as Damien Hirst and M.C. Escher, sets the stage for her compelling arguments about the elite art world and its potential reconciliation with art that continues to seek aesthetic beauty, and appeals so fervently to the broad public. Her thoughts in this compelling book have opened a new dimension for us to absorb and contemplate our contemporary world, as art intersects with technology, newly emerging collaborative “salons” and the age-old canons of aesthetic philosophy. Ultimately, in this engaging read, her insights suggest where we may be headed, as art continues to evolve in our transformative time of human history.

-Morris Shapiro, Senior Gallery Director, Park West Gallery

In this intellectually bold and expansive study, Claudia Moscovici offers the “textual embodiment of a culture salon” in her exploration of the history of art salons, an analysis of two current salons (one digital and one floating), and her own showcase of artists who represent a range of contemporary artistic trends. Moscovici deftly argues that artistic freedom does not solely entail the freedom to create but also the freedom to have one’s works available to the public. Throughout, the book makes a case for the philosophic importance of art for a meaningful life and particularly for the role of emotion, passion and sensuality in art. The writing is clear and compelling, and any reader from the art novice to the art expert would find the book illuminating.

-Natalie McKnight, Dean and Professor of Humanities, The College of General Studies, Boston University

What does the art world need today? At a time when the fields of knowledge are becoming increasingly specialized, and the trends promoted by major galleries and museums are becoming more and more standardized, art critic Claudia Moscovici compellingly argues for the necessity of new cultural spaces that can provide a much-needed forum for a diverse range of artists and artistic trends, while giving the public the chance to consider them. Her book celebrates aesthetic pluralism, drawing inspiration from 18^th and 19^th century French culture salons and the art criticism of notable writers such as Denis Diderot and Emile Zola. With her vivid, clear and precise style, and her ability to make apt comparisons, Claudia Moscovici takes us into the worlds of some of the most fascinating contemporary international artists. Her lucid and passionate appreciation of their works draws upon a vast cultural background and manifests an extraordinary aesthetic sensibility. In a versatile fashion, the author presents the works of artists working in a wide range of artistic and intellectual fields, including photography, theater, literature, poetry, mathematics and philosophy. This interdisciplinarity in action, as well as the author's commitment to innovative artistic initiatives interpreted as forms of “modern culture salons”, make this book an eloquent manifestation of a new Enlightenment spirit.

-Matthieu Binder, Editor and founder of Littératurefrançaise.net