Edward J. Sozanski

Edward J. Sozanski, a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and Columbia University, has been an art critic for 30 years, first at the Providence Journal-Bulletin and since 1982 at the Inquirer. He has also has written on cultural topics for The Economist newspaper of London.

Besides contemporary art, his particular interests are photography, American art of the 19th Century and crafted art of all periods and cultures. Before becoming a critic, he taught college-level writing and worked as a graphic designer.

Email Edward at esozanski@phillynews.com

In a Pompeiian villa, a floor mosaic shows a dog chained to a door - an elaborate "beware of dog" image. Mosaics and wall paintings in cities and villas engulfed by Vesuvius' eruption remain impressive though more than 1,900 years have passed.

Art: From the ashes of Vesuvius

Art still lives in the places the volcano buried. Some will be shown this fall in D.C.

By Edward J. Sozanski, Contributing Art Critic

Posted 08/22/2008

First of two articles POMPEII, Italy - This is a dead city, buried more than 19 centuries ago by ash and pumice spewing from Mount Vesuvius, and now about 80 percent dug out. Herculaneum is even deader, buried more deeply under nearly 100 feet of fossilized volcanic mud and lava. So far, less than half of it has been exposed.

Traditional decor, avant-garde art: Claribel Cone's apartment featured (from left) Matisse's "Pink Nude" (his "Blue Nude" hung on the opposite wall); "Still Life With Lemons" by Georges Braque; and "Yellow Pottery From Provence," the earliest Matisse in the collection. The Cone collection in Baltimore has about 500 works by Matisse, the largest such group anywhere.

Art: What motivates big collectors to do what they do?

By Edward J. Sozanski, Contributing Art Critic

Posted 08/15/2008

The Cone sisters of Baltimore, Claribel and Etta, might have seemed eccentric to some of their contemporaries, not only because they continued to dress like staid and proper Victorians well into the 20th century but also because they collected avant-garde art.

Art: Michener's New Hope site closing 08/08/2008: The satellite of the Doylestown museum never found its expected audience.

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Five years ago, the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown extended its reach by opening a satellite gallery in New Hope. The museum regarded the venture as an experiment that would expose a new audience to the art of Bucks County, the Michener's specialty.
Art: Interest-bearing 'Reverberations' 08/01/2008: Bank of America lends works to the Penna. Academy for a show on post-'50s American art.

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Banks buying art triggers mixed feelings. One likes to see artists being patronized, yet one would prefer that banks give their discretionary cash back to depositors in the form of reasonable rates of interest.
Art: A 'modern' Indian 07/25/2008: Nandalal Bose's vision was a new art for his new nation, and he succeeded.

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Nandalal Bose, who died in 1966 at age 83, is remembered in India as the "father" of that country's "modern art." This encomium might seem puzzling to anyone who sees the exhibition devoted to his life and career at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Art: 07/18/2008: By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Continued on H7
Art: Call him what you 07/18/2008: will; he makes chairs

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

As I ambled through Garry Knox Bennett's exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum, I thought of Walt Whitman's lines from Song of Myself: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."
Art: Africans in Mexico 07/11/2008: A revelatory exhibition at the African American Museum shows their little-known influence on Mexican culture.

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

By the way they present art, museums encourage us to engage objects one by one and to consider their individual characteristics. This usually produces a purely aesthetic response to a work's formal qualities, without regard to its cultural ramifications.
Art: Painters and watery inspiration 07/04/2008: By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Painters have been drawn to water since at least the 17th century, when Dutch artists, whose country and national temperament were shaped by the North Sea and the Rhine River, made seascapes a respected genre.
Art: Not a pretty picture 07/05/2008: Philadelphia artist Chuck Connelly, profiled on HBO, is a profane, angry, stubborn man. But a "failure"? That remains to be seen.

By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

The HBO documentary on Philadelphia painter Chuck Connelly is titled The Art of Failure, but it would be more accurate to call this hour-long rage against the vicissitudes of the artist's existence Chuck's War.
Art: Friends of Barnes keep up the good fight 06/27/2008: By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

To paraphrase the eminent metaphysician L.P. Berra, an event has not concluded until all activity associated with that event has ceased. By that measure, the 20-year struggle for the body and soul of the Barnes Foundation might still have wobbly legs, even if, legally, la guerre appears to be fini.
Art: The dog has its day - and then some 06/20/2008: By Edward J. Sozanski , Contributing Art Critic

Dogs again. Is it because summer has arrived, or because museums are subtly but inexorably lowering the bar to spare their visitors any intellectual heavy lifting? Perhaps it's those factors working in tandem that have brought William Wegman and his remarkably patient Weimaraner, Fay Ray, to the Allentown Art Museum.