Is a new aesthetic of traditional realist art gaining traction? Some “recent surveys show evidence of a very interesting mind shift among a number of young American painters living here or abroad. In general, a broad spectrum of older artists seem almost inevitably to include shock, angst, or politics in their works—an impulse to disturb articulated in The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes. On the other hand, a growing majority of American artists who today are under 40 years old seem more intent on creating paintings that are visually beautiful, rather than emotionally disturbing.”