Every sentient adult has his own favorite book by the English historian Paul Johnson. Some favor Intellectuals (1989), his devastating and often hilarious dissection of egghead hubris, pomposity, and malice. Others make a case for Modern Times (1983), or A History of the American People (1997). Until yesterday, my own favorite was The Birth of the Modern (1991), his thousand-page conspectus about “World Society 1815-1830.” I am not quite ready to forswear my enthusiasm for that marvelous book, but I waver. The cause of my vacillation is Johnson’s latest book, Art: A New History, an 800-pager that takes readers from the cave paintings of Lascaux up through the latest inanities of the post-post-post trendissimus stuff you see at your local avant-garde art emporium. Along the way readers are treated to guided tours of everything from the art of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, through the achievements of medieval Europe, the Italian Renaissance, the influence of Asian art, and the triumphs of Dutch masters and English watercolorists, to the explosion of art-isms in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Mr. Kimball is managing editor of The New Criterion.
Comments