Article: Art's truth.(Art: A New History)(Book Review)

ART: A NEW HISTORY. By PAUL JOHNSON. HarperCollins. 777 pp. $39.95.

Reviewed by John J. Reilly

YES, IT IS POSSIBLE to write a single-volume general history of art, if you narrow the definition and focus on your own enthusiasms. Paul Johnson is best known for his large-scale histories, written in the Burkean tradition of moralizing conservatism. He is also, however, a serious painter himself, and the son of a professional. He suggests that he might have made art his career, but his father warned him that the future would belong to charlatans such as Picasso. Actually, what's remarkable about Art: A New History is that it's mostly about what the author ...

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