User talk:DavidParfitt

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Contents

[edit] On Macedonia

Reposted from Village Pump

We currrently have Republic of China for Taiwan. Surely this is as potentially inflamatory for many from the People's Reupublic to the west? I have conceded to the naming of the article as the Republic of Macedonia (Republic of Ireland is used in a similar fashion to describe the nation entity in contrast to the whole of Ireland). It remains down to the country itself to call itself what it wants to and whether you see the Greeks' stance as one of the most petty cases of nationalist anger or as a noble act of protecting a heritage is irrelevent. We should be none partisan at all times. Citing the international use of FYROM by groups who largely need the grip of diplomacy on the slipery pole of politics to suit their own agendas, is a weak defence of its use. Heaven forbid the wrath of J. M. Barrie fans if a country calls itself Neverland Dainamo June 21, 2005

[edit] Brighton and Hove ampersand

Hi. To my knowledge, the city does not formally have an ampersand in its name. If you read the order establishing the borough, you will note that it consistently uses 'Brighton and Hove' and never 'Brighton & Hove'. The use of "Westward Ho!" here shows that they would do such things.

You imply perhaps that the borough changed its name when it achieved city status some years later? I would like to see a reference for this please. Otherwise I think it should be moved back to "Brighton and Hove", which is (a) the official name, (b) less problematic in the web and (c) anyway much nicer on the eyes. I realise the council use the term with "&", both in their own name and for the city, but the formal name of the council and the city remains, as far as i can tell, ampersand-less. To take another example, we have an article East Hertfordshire, not East Herts, despite the fact that the council informally uses the latter term. (On the other hand we have an article South Bucks, because the district really is called that in law!)

I look forward to your response.

Morwen - Talk 23:58, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cuban espionage and related extraterritorial activity revised

I've nominated this article for being protected from edition, hope it helps in getting it more NPOV (the way it's right now is extremely anti-Castro POV). If you have time and will, could you please help me with this? Thanks in advance TrollDeBatalla

[edit] Academic art article

Hi David, I wrote the original article, and when I wrote it I understood very well the ways in which academic art appeared in countries other than France. 'Academism' as it came to be used does refer to a certain refined style where the center was even at the time considered to be in France, which was generally the center of culture at the time. Other European academies were influenced heavily by the French model, which I mentioned. Criticisms of 'academism' were also heavily influenced by French criticisms. There is no attempt to exclude anything but the French school. Mentions of Makart, Leys, Scheffer, Leighton, and other non-French academics are there. As for England, much can be said about Joshua Reynolds' writings about art and how they relate to academism, which are referenced in the article on hierarchy of genres which I wrote and is linked to in the academic art article. I also wrote the article on Hans Makart, who is a strong example of academism in Austria. Aside from England, it would be interesting to write further about what happened in Germany and Austria, and how the local traditions led to different results, partly because history painting was at first discouraged by Metternich. Its true that Pre-Raphaelites also had a revolt and this isnt discussed in the article. Its interesting to note that many highly regarded French academics themselves criticized 'academism' before there were any real revolts. So much is left out that can be discussed. There is a reason though under the Criticism and Legacy section, why that Pre-Raphaelites weren't mentioned and it leads to a neater path to modernism, because the legacy of the academic style was the modernist reaction, where pre-Raphaelites don't hold a high place. If I wrote the article longer, I could have included a lot more. Do you think its important for all of this to be worked into the article? I was actually working on writing something apart from Wikipedia to present a new history of 19th century art, where I discuss different traditions in different countries; but for the Wikipedia academism article I think I wrote enough. Brianshapiro

Thank you for your message back to me. You're right of course how the debate shaped up in England at the time. I understand some of this also; and how many English academics argued that the artist should work for the market. I actually mentioned it in the article I wrote for kitsch. Its also interesting how the debate shaped in different countries other than France--as I hinted, in Austria, for instance, academic art, its main figure in Makart, became very much about public decoration. Metternich as head of the Academy discouraged history painting, because other forms of painting were considered to be of more moral benefit (contrast to France), after which history painting was mainly confined to decorating public spaces. This hard stance was later given up but it led to artists like Makart, who were also decorators and designers who were united with Wagner in seeking a 'total work of art'. The revolt against academism in central Europe was the Jugenstil and other Art Nouveau movements, which were similarly oriented around decoration. I guess I neglected to mention these different traditions in countries other than France, because 'academism' was usually used to refer to the French model, which relied on strict codifications, and the French model was really the central one--the "art pompier." If you take Leighton, who was closest to French academics, was criticized sometimes for being too much like a "French academic." I think though now that this was brought up I will edit the article to be more inclusive. Brianshapiro

[edit] Image galleries

You recently commented at Wikipedia_talk:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Proposal_to_modify_WP:NOT_an_image_gallery. In a related development, another, in my mind, valuable Image gallery is up for deletion (AfD). Please comment as you see fit. Dsmdgold 15:35, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Public art article

I don't know if you're still interested and I am very new to Wiki but have made some comments on the Public Art page and would like to engage in discussion. It's a topic I deal with everyday and I consider my attention to the page a part of my practice. Hope to see you there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bmccarren (talk • contribs) 01:09, 15 September 2007 (UTC)