Art Trends for 2020

I love Christmas, and among its many pleasures is two weeks off. After writing a story each week for forty consecutive weeks, I thought it was time for a descanso, not, alas, on the Costa Brava but in Vermont. Since we’re already in 2020, I’ll start the new year by examining trends for the new decade, informed by some of last year’s big stories.

The biggest art-news story of the year was the Notre Dame cathedral fire on April 15. I wrote about this at the time, and not because I adore the building. Sainte-Chapelle, across the road from Notre Dame, and the cathedrals at Chartres, Beauvais, and Laon are more appealing to me and architecturally more challenging, but Notre Dame is an icon.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Notre Dame

I love Christmas, and among its many pleasures is two weeks off. After writing a story each week for forty consecutive weeks, I thought it was time for a descanso, not, alas, on the Costa Brava but in Vermont. Since we’re already in 2020, I’ll start the new year by examining trends for the new decade, informed by some of last year’s big stories.

The biggest art-news story of the year was the Notre Dame cathedral fire on April 15. I wrote about this at the time, and not because I adore the building. Sainte-Chapelle, across the road from Notre Dame, and the cathedrals at Chartres, Beauvais, and Laon are more appealing to me and architecturally more challenging, but Notre Dame is an icon.