Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism

In 2022, the National Civic Art Society published Modern Art: An Exhibition in Criticism, a book of witty and amusing poems by NCAS Research Fellow Michael Curtis.

The poems are intended to be employed like a rusty-nailed fencepost by which you may beat pretentious Modernist artists and architects about the head, repeatedly. The author leaves out no cheap trick of meter or rhyme to achieve his ends. He employs adolescent sing-song, doggerel, slanting rhyme--in short, every mischief-making device he can borrow or invent is used in a manner that would shame lesser poets. Yes, he stoops to conquer. Indeed, conquest is his aim; his tactic, wit; his weapons, mudslinging, ridicule, name-calling, and other dirty tricks of antique pedigree.

According to a review from the Society of Classical Poets, Modern Art is a “bitingly brilliant book.” Curtis “offers a way forward in the sheer pluckiness of this book and his complete comfort in defaulting to traditional forms in his writing. There is something great worth living and creating for, and while he never comes out and says it, we get the sense that Curtis knows it well.”

You can purchase the book HERE.