Tom Break

Tom Break studied philosophy at the University of Chicago and art and art history at the University of Iowa. In 2006, he “reverted” to the Catholicism of his youth and has been engaged ever since in the search after a true understanding of what makes art good in both his visual work and his writing. He has published essays in The New Criterion, Genealogies of Modernity, Dappled Things, Lydwine, and elsewhere and has exhibited work in cities across the US. He is a co-founder of In the Wind Projects and lives with his wife and four children aboard a small sailboat.

Visual Art

Tom Break's visual artworks are created by cutting layers of black tulle, stitching them together, and mounting them directly on the wall. The fabric visually approximates its shadow, giving the works an arresting visual presence, somewhere between a hovering shadow and a disembodied photograph.

Saints & Symbols

RENAISSANCES

Based on Michelangelo's entrance to the Laurentian Library, the works in this site-specific installation use architectural forms to explore the tension between the idea of a 're-birth' of classical culture and the emergence of a new dark age.

Geometric Works

A collection of small works exploring geometric constructions, arithmetic sequences, and human proportions. Editions of hand-made multiples are available through the artist.

THE OCEAN IS WHAT I MEANT BY

These works lift a line from Ben Lerner's Mean Free Path, cutting the words "The ocean is what I meant by" over and over again into black tulle, which is then layered and mounted in handmade wood frames.

Writing

Tom Break's writing is principally concerned with reviving an art critical ethos from within the deepest roots of the western tradition with an eye toward finding a way to an art for the future that is good and true.

The Good Art

Tom's current writing project is a book-length essay tentatively called The Good Art: An Ethics of Making. The following essays are initial attempts to grapple with the ideas in that larger investigation.

An essay sequence appeared in Dappled Things under the author name Brian Prugh, setting up the initial questions the book will tackle:

"Maybe to Perfect a Thing Is to Destroy It: Searching for the End of Art (Part I)"

"A Fast that is Pleasing to the Eyes: Searching for the End of Art (Part II)"

*Winner of the 2020 Jacques Maritain Prize for Criticism

Two essay sequences appeared in Genealogies of Modernity:

Modern Art and Truth:

"The Possibility of True Art: On Modern Art"

"Seeing in the Spirit: On Modern Art"

"What Truth can Be Found There: On Modern Art"

Art and Value:

"Art and the Restoration of Value"

"Art and the Work of Holding onto Hope"