What I do and why I do it …

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Sunday Recommendations & Recurring Support

See this page for information on the Sunday Recommendations list, and ways to support my work. Members of the list receive pre-publication offers of my books, access to exclusive videos, and other rewards.

Art & art history

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. My approach to studying art is based on Rand’s The Romantic Manifesto. (More on that here.)

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.

Since 2002, I’ve written 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. Contact me at DuranteDianne@gmail.com if you’re interested in hearing me live.

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).

Alexander Hamilton

When Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton appeared in 2004, I read it eagerly … because I wanted to learn why New Yorkers had erected four life-size sculptures of Hamilton. I enjoyed Hamilton’s company so much that I worked up a walking tour of the sculptures with excerpts from Hamilton’s writings. In 2012, an edited transcript of the tour appeared as Alexander Hamilton: A Brief Biography.

In 2015, along came Hamilton: An American Musical. By the time I finally listened to the soundtrack, tickets were scarce and expensive. I compensated for not being able to see the show by writing weekly blog posts for sixteen months. My goal was to stitch together an image of Hamilton’s life and ideas via his own words, and incidentally to tackle issues such as the difference between art and history – and why we need both. In late 2017, I compiled the blog posts into two volumes under the title Alexander Hamilton: A Friend to America (here and here). Rand Scholet of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society wrote:

Author Dianne Durante has made a valuable contribution to the literature on Alexander Hamilton.  Though the research is clearly based on an in-depth study of primary source documents, the writings are conversational and give the reader a truer understanding of this remarkable Founding Father by keeping his voice heard throughout the pages. The AHA Society highly recommends this three-book series on Alexander Hamilton.

Rand Scholet, Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society

For more on Alexander Hamilton: A Brief Biography and Alexander Hamilton: A Friend to America, vols. 1-2, in this post.

Alexander Hamilton and the Reynolds Affair (based on a sold-out talk at Fraunces Tavern in 2019) deals with an issue that makes most fans of Hamilton uncomfortable. Given that he loved his wife and family, why did Hamilton choose to have an affair with Maria Reynolds? And why did he publish a pamphlet five years later telling the whole world about it? Via dozens of primary sources and contemporary images, this book puts all three phases of the Reynolds Affair into their historical, social, and political context. For more, see this post.

The Financial Programs of Alexander Hamilton, by a Farmer’s Daughter, asks: In late 1789, when Hamilton became secretary of the Treasury, what would the man who cornered him in a tavern, or the woman who sat across from him at a dinner party, tell Hamilton he urgently needed to fix? How did Hamilton’s programs address those crises? And what made those programs so useful that the programs remained in place long after the crises of the 1780s and 1790s were resolved? 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’m gradually making his short stories and novels available in new editions (print and Kindle), with relevant selections from Webster’s correspondence added. I’ve published four volumes of Collected Short Works and Related Correspondence, which include all Webster’s short stories and many of his letters.

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.

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.

I also do freelance editing, writing, and copywriting: testimonials and contact info here.

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.