From the Fountainhead to the Future and Other Essays on Art and Excellence

Art is a shortcut to philosophy declares Alexandra York in this challenging collection of essays offered for the specific purpose of suggesting which art and ideas should be championed and advanced if we are to generate an American Renaissance at the dawn of this new millennium. The result of her efforts is no less than a blueprint for a revolution in the arts. Nothing since Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word has so daringly called for a reconsideration of where the tastemaking establishment has been taking us. Boldly addressing the anomaly of a nation experiencing both unprecedented material prosperity and cultural bankruptcy and calling herself a radical for beauty, she frankly spurns twentieth century primitivism, nihilism, deconstructionism and political correctness. As a potent antidote to our cultural malaise, she advocates revitalizing the fundamental tenets of our philosophical heritage (ancient Greece) by imbuing contemporary art created in the established Western heritage art forms–representationalism in the visual arts; melody and harmony in music; structure and ideation in the written arts–with a positive and inspiring content that celebrates the world at its most beautiful and man and woman at their best. No revivalist, she also spurns nostalgia and urges those of us who love life and the art that enhances living to enjoy and enrich our moments on this earth through art experiences that lift our spirits, move us to contemplative thought and remind us why life is worth living.