It’s September and time for the monthly LWD Art Appreciation selections. This year we are reading classics, exploring a variety of types of art, architecture and design, listening to opera and watching some the all-time best films.
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ART APPRECIATION
September 2025
Classic Literature
A Room With a View
by E.M. Forster
E.M. Forster’s beloved novel of forbidden love, culture clash, and the confines of Edwardian society
Visiting Florence with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional, lower-class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but she finds herself increasingly torn between the expectations of the world in which she moves and the passionate yearnings of her heart. More than a love story, A Room with a View (1908) is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts – in values, social class, and cultural perspectives – and the ingenuity of fate. In her illuminating introduction, Forster biographer Wendy Moffat delves into the little-known details of his life before and during the writing of A Room with a View, and explores the way the enigmatic author’s queer eye found comedy in the clash between English manners and the unsettling modern world, encouraging his reader to recognize and overcome their prejudice through humor. This edition also contains new suggestions for further reading by Moffat and explanatory notes by Malcolm Bradbury.
Note: Many of us are doing our best to avoid purchasing from Amazon and a number of other large corporations, for a variety of reasons. I recommend purchasing books from local book stores if you have them in your area. If not, Bookshop.org is a great option.
Art/Architecture/Design
Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) made a unique modernist mark. Influenced by both the landscape and the political independence of his native Finland, he designed warm, curving, compassionate buildings, wholly set apart from the slick, mechanistic, geometric designs that characterized much contemporary European practice.
Whether a church, a villa, a sauna, or a public library, Aalto’s organic structures tended to replace plaster and steel with brick and wood, often incorporating undulating, wave-like forms, which would also appear in his chair, glassware, and lamp designs. An adherent to detail, Aalto insisted upon the humanity of his work stating: “Modern architecture does not mean using immature new materials; the main thing is to work with materials towards a more human line.”
Many of Aalto’s public buildings such as Säynätsalo Town Hall, the lecture theatre at Otaniemi Technical University, the Helsinki National Pensions Institute and the Helsinki House of Culture may be seen as psychological as well as physical landmarks in the rebuilding of Finland after the ravages of war.
Opera
Spotify Playlist:
Classic Film
No Down Payment
A college-educated, newlywed couple David & Jean Martin (played by Jeffery Hunter & Patricia Owens) moves into a newly constructed suburban Los Angeles subdivision in the late 1950s. David & Jean are invited to a cookout occurring that evening in the backyard of their new next door neighbors Herman & Betty Kreitzer (played by Pat Hingle & Barbara Rush). The Martins are introduced to other neighbors Jerry & Isabelle Flagg (played by Tony Randall & Sheree North) & Troy & Leola Boone (played by Cameron Mitchell & Joanne Woodward) at the cookout. The neighbors are contemporary 1950s married couples dealing with issues that suburbanites have dealt with for years. Alcoholism, marital infidelity, racism, & religion are a few of the suburban issues dealt with during the film’s 1 hour & 41 minute running time. No Down Payment is an interesting look at 1950s suburban life & issues.
Trailer:
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If you have any favorites to recommend for future posts feel free to share in the comments!
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