Criticism
Catherine Fox / Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Catherine Fox is well-known to Journal-Constitution readers for her incisive commentary on art and architecture.

She easily manages to keep pace with the rapidly changing environment of Atlanta, offering provocative essays on the growth of the city and the direction it's taking as each new structure soars into the sky.

So it came as no surprise that Fox was able to capture the impact of Christianity on the arts as part of a yearlong series, "Christianity at 2000."

Nov. 27, 1999

With intellect and wit, she traced the Christian origins of the towering cathedrals that dot Europe and detailed the profound influence such architecture has had on the Western world.

That she was able to also engagingly intertwine the history of art — from the great masters of the Renaissance to folk artists of the 20th century — clearly points to her consummate skills as critic and writer.

"It was a really fun thing to do, to try and turn something that could have been a dry history lecture into something more lively and contemporary," Fox said.

"It really made me think about the ways that Christianity has affected our architecture, in different ways than I had considered it before."
Fox was Cox Newspapers writer of the year in 1993. Now seven years later, she's a winner in the competition once again.

"It's nice to be remembered," she said.

Born in Detroit, Fox graduated with honors and also received a master's degree in art history from the University of Michigan.

She taught art history in Michigan and Georgia, and worked in several Atlanta galleries before joining the Journal-Constitution as its first art critic in 1982. She and her husband, Steven, have two children, Matthew and Michael.