About Dianne L. Durante

A few words on what I do and why I do it …

Writing addict & adept

At age five, I won my first writing award: a three-foot-long fire truck with an ear-splitting siren. I’ve been addicted to writing ever since. It has earned me most of my college tuition, a four-week trip to Greece, and a ten-day Caribbean cruise. Oh, yes, and mortgage payments: my day job for 25 years was describing rare books in such an enticing way that customers were eager to pay thousands of dollars for them.

Discovering H.W. Janson and Ayn Rand

When I was 17, my high-school art teacher lent me Janson’s History of Art. It was my first clue that art was more than the rock-star posters and garden gnomes that I saw in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, and that history wasn’t just a series of names, dates, and statistics. Soon afterwards I read Ayn Rand’s fiction and nonfiction works, and discovered that art and history – as well as politics, ethics, science, and all fields of human knowledge – are integrated by philosophy.

The challenge of figuring out how ideas and facts fit together, and then sharing what I know with others, clearly and concisely – that’s what makes me leap out of bed in the morning. As an independent researcher, freelance writer, and lecturer, my insatiable curiosity has led me to comment on the arts, food, history, politics, and the business of writing and publishing. For all my books and essays, see this page. For books only, see my page on Amazon.

My approach to studying art is based on Rand’s The Romantic Manifesto (more here). My approach to history is based on her philosophy of Objectivism.

History

I’ve written extensively on periods from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century. Among the books are several on Alexander Hamilton: see this page for a list.

As of summer 2024, I’m posting a series Timeline 1700-1900 on Substack. This project was begun as a prequel to Timeline 1900-2021.

Art History

As an art historian I’m a passionate amateur, and I write for other passionate amateurs. I love looking at art, and thinking about art, and helping other people have a blast looking at it, too.

From 2002 to 2020, I wrote extensively on outdoor representational sculpture in New York City. I believe that art at its best is emotional fuel, and while these sculptures don’t rival Michelangelo’s David, many of them are extremely well executed and represent people whose achievements are inspiring. My website www.ForgottenDelights.com was created in 2002 to celebrate such sculptures. (The essays originally posted there are now on DianneDuranteWriter.com.)

Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press, 2007), which includes 54 sculptures, was described by Sam Roberts in the New York Times as “a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure” (1/28/2007). In 2014, Guides Who Know published a “translation” of the book as Monuments of Manhattan, a videoguide app.

I’ve written extensively on Central Park (sculptures, architecture, features) on this site and in Central Park: The Early Years.

Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love shows how to get from the visual to the verbal when thinking or talking about a work of art. The companion volume, Getting More Enjoyment from Paintings You Love, is in the works.

I’ve given dozens of lectures on art history and history in the Metropolitan Museum, Fraunces Tavern, and Hamilton Grange, and elsewhere. I’ve also conducted walking tours of sculpture in Manhattan.

I don’t consider non-representational works to be art, so usually I don’t bother to discuss them. But if you’re up for a good rant, try my essays on Christo’s Gates and on the Turner Prize (2005).

As an art historian, I constantly seek out art that’s inspiring, thought-provoking, skillfully executed, and/or beautiful so I can share it (in jargon-free language) with others who need and enjoy such art, but who don’t have time to search for it themselves. In the course of doing this for thirty or so years, I’ve made two unique contributions.

  • A simple, easy way to get from visual to verbal when looking at painting and sculpture, so you can spend more time looking at your own favorite works in detail, in depth, and on your own. This method is set out (with many examples) in Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love and How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings.

  • Using innovations as a framework for an overview of the history of Western art. Innovators in Sculpture and Innovators in Painting are a great introduction or refresher for anyone interested in art or art history. Their broadest goal is to help you find more subjects, styles, and periods that intrigue you and appeal to you – that present the world the way you think it can and ought to be. Because what’s the point of looking at art, if not for moments like that? More here.

Henry Kitchell Webster

In the 1910s and 1920s, Henry Kitchell Webster (1875-1932) was a well-known, well-paid, and well-respected author. His novels were widely read and his short stories frequently appeared in major magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. In 1921, the New York Times printed his thoughts on “What Is a Novel, Anyhow?” Webster’s characters are charming and intelligent. They pursue their goals in intriguing ways. And the endings are unpredictable, except in the sense that they are always upbeat and satisfying. Webster’s works appeal to me because of that upbeat sense of life. (Not surprisingly, he sees the world in a way very similar to that of sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens and painter Maxfield Parrish, whose lives overlap with his: see Artist-Entrepreneurs: Saint Gaudens, MacMonnies, and Parrish).

Because I enjoy Webster’s works, I’ve made several of his novels available in new editions (print and Kindle), with selections from Webster’s correspondence. I’ve also published four volumes of Collected Short Works and Related Correspondence, which include all Webster’s short stories and many of his letters.

Words I live by

  • Knowledge is never wasted except on those too lazy to use it. (Did I mention I have a PhD in Classical Philology, and can read 10 or so languages?)
  • Aut inveniam via aut faciam: I shall either find a way or make one.
  • A is A.