A history of painting (with dinosaurs) | Mark Witton

Ultimately, this is a book review, but it's a very good one that helps dissect the topic of where palaeoart fits in with the wider canon of art itself. It certainly gave me pause for thought on how even I (with a growing palaeoart collection) think about displaying and enjoying the medium.

On the snobbery and cultural conditioning of dinosaurs as "childish" and therefore not worthy of artistic expression (itself a quote from Lescaze 2017):

β€œThrow an engraving of an egret above the mantelpiece and no one balks. Hang a painting of a *T. rex* in the same spot, and the decision screams nerd stuck in second childhood.”

On the core question of the book and, arguably, of palaeoart itself:

And, more broadly, it asks why must art of dinosaurs be useful? Can it not be art for the sake of being art, or created purely for aesthetic value?

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