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University of Chicago Press

As seen in the collection A Roger Fry Reader, Roger Fry acts as reporter of the English art world from the late 1800s to the 1900’s early days.  Artwork that traveled to his homeland, he wrote about it.  Credited as the co-founder of Formalism, he wrote various articles on Modern era art movements such as Cubism and Impressionism.  I say this because the anthology of writings come from various magazines he contributed to.  He reviewed art showings, put together introductions to books and catalogues, and saw various communications between museums.  Fry also lived on the divide between the Academic art world and modern art movement.  According to editor Christopher Reed, Fry himself had in critiquing from an academic lens.  However, he sings the praises of modern art movements Impressionism and Cubism.  He praises the way artists from each movement with the way they render line and color.  Occasionally, the way he goes about describing line and color in various paintings can lead to some very trippy moments.

Interestingly, the last article in the book, has him analysing the Bathsheba painting by Rembrandt.  Fry writes poetically about the way the Northern Baroque painted the scene.  While a lot of his articles last only a few pages, his prose can range from engaging and lovely to dry and boring.