Beauty treatment.To the Editor: I'm writing in praise of Carol Armstrong's beautiful article on Craigie Horsfield Craigie Horsfield (born 1949) is a British artist and photographer, who was a Turner Prize nominee. Craigie Horsfield was born in Cambridge, England. In 1996 he was nominated for the Turner Prize. and her defense of aesthetics in contemporary art ["The Dilation dilation /di·la·tion/ (di-la´shun) 1. the act of dilating or stretching. 2. dilatation. di·la·tion n. 1. of Attention," January 2004]. Armstrong attributes a "yearning" to be "singular, original, canon-enshrined and museum-dignified" to the work of Jeff Wall and other "big picture" makers; I thought that applied equally to Horsfield's unique prints but after reading the article it occurs to me perhaps I was wrong. I do take issue with the way Armstrong seems to differentiate photography from other new media by basing her discussion on the physicality of the photographic surface (physical scale and surface need not be the issue when the meditative space can be infinitely small). But mainly I want to thank her for cutting to the heart of the matter. Armed with honesty, clarity of argument, and the beloved OED OED abbr. Oxford English Dictionary Noun 1. OED - an unabridged dictionary constructed on historical principles O.E.D., Oxford English Dictionary , she has sliced through a century of stratified stratified /strat·i·fied/ (strat´i-fid) formed or arranged in layers. strat·i·fied adj. Arranged in the form of layers or strata. photographic discourse to look carefully at Horsfield's work. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I admit to being emotionally moved by the beauty and the meaning of Armstrong's prose--definitely a first for me while reading Artforum. Horsfield is indeed fortunate to have his work be the object of Armstrong's attention. --Bill Jones, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of |
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