CSF Bookstore
Conscience of Beauty: Essays
by Carl Schmitt
$20.00
The Vision of Beauty: Artwork and Reflections
by Carl Schmitt
$29.99
Who was Carl Schmitt?
Carl Schmitt (1889–1989) was an American artist who developed over his long career a unique aesthetic vision that assimilated traditional European approaches to art with modern movements. Through this integration he arrived at a unique approach to painting which informed more than just his work. Schmitt was a man of principles and understanding whose works are as singular and profound as the man who created them.
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Carl Schmitt’s work as a artist encompassed painting, etching, and print making, as well as as work in pastel and charcoal. He was especially noted for his still lifes, portraits, and religious paintings. Throughout his career spanning eight decades, he exhibited at such important venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the Carnegie International, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Società Delle Belle Arti in Florence, and numerous galleries in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. His paintings now grace many private collections around the world.
Read the Biography
Friends characterize Carl Schmitt as a man truly respectful of the individual person. Despite the poverty and troubles that sometimes seemed to overwhelm him, he treated people amiably and with humor. Schmitt’s intensely strong beliefs, great wit, and profound ideas never closed him off from his contemporaries whose ideas many times differed greatly from his own. He was genuinely a man in pursuit of the truth of art and life.
Explore the Writings
Schmitt wrote constantly throughout his life, producing a library of diverse writings filling some thirty-three notebooks. His topics ranged from the fine arts, history, science, economics, and metaphysics, to the roles of family, society, and the human person. The titles of a few of his essays illustrate the variety of his interests: “The Instinct for Contemplation in Art,” “Grounds for Optimism in Politics,” “On Mythology,” Upon First Reading Aristotle,” and ““Religion and Rationalism.”
What is the Carl Schmitt Foundation?
The Carl Schmitt Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation, was established in 1996 to perpetuate the legacy of the American artist Carl Schmitt (1889-1989), and to make his achievement as an outstanding man, artist, and thinker better known and appreciated. Using the example of Schmitt's life, the Foundation seeks to educate the public and artists on the role of Beauty in everyday life and the artistic vocation through exhibits, articles, concerts, conferences and more.
The CSF aims to reinvigorate artists and the public by sharing the artwork, life and legacy of Carl Schmitt, and in doing so to spark a new dedication to Beauty through the Fine Arts.