TLP Interview with Sebastian Smee, Art Critic, The Washington Post

“In the end, what interests me is the way art connects with life.
Because otherwise, I don’t quite understand what it’s for.” -
Sebastian Smee Sebastian Smee has been the art critic for the
Washington Post since 2018, but has written extensively about art
for every publication you can think of, from here to his native
Australia, and winning a Pulitzer prize for criticism along the
way. Both his prose and his love of the work leaps off the page and
into your lap, offering a guiding hand past the velvet rope, not
just for his readers, but for himself: he’s a critic who is
constantly looking inward, curious about his own responses to
artworks, and what it can teach him about teaching us. Sebastian
joined me to discuss his latest book, “Paris in Ruins: Love, War,
and the Birth of Impressionism,” as well as writers on writing,
becoming an expert about a movement on deadline, how looking back
at the muddiness of a historical moment can help us understand the
muddiness of ours, and what happens when art critics are themselves
at a loss for the words to express why they just love this or that
painting so darn much. See the images:
https://www.thelonelypalette.com/interview/2025/2/6/sebastian-smee-art-critic
Music used: The Blue Dot Sessions, “Town Market,” “Night Light,”
“Brass Buttons” Episode sponsor: The Art of Crime Podcast