Theoria

Peter Fuller, one of Britain's controversial art critics, has written a book about the importance of art. He tries to revive an older view, found in Ruskin's "Theoria", according to which art is a channel for grace. Beauty in art and nature evokes a moral and spiritual response in us. For this reason art is important. Fuller traces this tradition of thought from the Gothic revival to the present. He argues that this approach underlies the finest modern British painting and suggests that this could be the source which revives art today. From this perspective he criticizes post-modernism, Thatcherite arts policy, Saatchi-type buyers and left wing critics and arts administrators. Though these seem to be very different, Fuller claims that they share an underlying conception of art. He suggests that this "barren orthodoxy", has arisen as a result of the collapse of the idea of art as a channel for grace. Fuller's other books include "Beyond the Crisis in Art", "Images of God", "Marches Past" and "Art and Psychoanalysis". His television programmes include "Naturally Creative" (1987). He is also editor of the journal "Modern Painters".