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abstraction

Curator's Corner

National Walking Day: Art by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915 France)

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 | Karl Cole

Henri Gaudier-Bzeska was an early abstract sculptor who leaned in the direction of Neo-Primitivism, a style so named for the non-Western cultures that influenced Western artists. National Walking Day ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Jules Olitski

Friday, March 27, 2026 | Karl Cole

Jules Olitski was a Ukrainian-born American artist who was instrumental in developing the Color Field painting style. Color Field, which involved staining canvas rather than using brushes, was the ant ...

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Curator's Corner

Bringing Women's History Month to a Close

Monday, March 23, 2026 | Karl Cole

There are many of what I consider “art heroes” among artists, and if anyone deserves such a title, it would be the late Miriam Schapiro (1923-2015, US, born Canada). She was a key player i ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday for 12 March: Anish Kapoor

Thursday, March 12, 2026 | Karl Cole

Although in the early 1980s Kapoor’s work was consciously absorbing aspects of Indian culture, in the late 1980s into the 1990s he began to formulate an abstract visual language that transcends ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Asger Jorn (1914-1973 Denmark)

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 | Karl Cole

Asger Jorn was a leading painter of the European post-war CoBrA artists group. The CoBrA artists sought to distance European abstraction from its tradition of geometric forms, introducing more express ...

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Curator's Corner

Celebrating African American History Month 2026: Anna Williams

Monday, February 9, 2026 | Karl Cole

The history of African American artists goes back to the earliest days of the US. There are numerous art forms that can trace their lineage back to the African ancestors of African Americans, who carr ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Georges Mathieu (1921-2012 France)

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 | Karl Cole

After producing paintings that were copies of postcard views, Georges Mathieu went through what he called his "limbo" period (1944-1946), a time when he developed a completely personal new p ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Esteban Vicente (1903-2001 US, born Spain)

Wednesday, January 21, 2026 | Karl Cole

Esteban Vicente was part of the vibrant Abstract Expressionism scene in American art after World War II (1939-1945). His work reflects the type of biomorphic abstraction influenced by Surrealism seen ...

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Curator's Corner

National Hat Day: Art by Tom Price

Thursday, January 15, 2026 | Karl Cole

Since at least 1983, schools, libraries, and museums have observed National Hat Day. People are invited to wear their favorite type of hat. The date also commemorates the day in 1797 when the first to ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Burgoyne Diller

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 | Karl Cole

Burgoyne Diller was a true pioneer in American abstraction. During the period when Abstraction Expressionism dominated American modernism, Diller quietly pursued geometric abstraction that was inf ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Nathan Oliveira

Friday, December 19, 2025 | Karl Cole

The work of painter Nathan Oliveira is an interesting example of how the West Coast of the US nurtured its own forms of modernist experiments, including abstract figuratioin, that were quite apart ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Sato Koichi

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Sato’s poster work shows just how fully Japanese graphic designers have absorbed Western modernist aesthetics and combined them with traditional Japanese sensibilities. Japanese poster art d ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Nancy Rubins

Wednesday, December 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Through sculptures assembled from discarded materials and graphite drawings that assume the appearance of liquid metal or crumpled steel, Nancy Rubins transforms quotidian objects into artworks that e ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Roberto González Goyri

Thursday, November 20, 2025 | Karl Cole

Sculptor Roberto González Goyri is one of the artists who exemplifies the electric spirit of development of modernism in Central and South American countries during the middle of the 1900s. ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart

Friday, November 7, 2025 | Karl Cole

Vordemberge-Gildewart was a major figure in the Concrete Art that developed in Europe in many countries as a form of pure abstraction. It encompassed many individual movements, including Construct ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: James Siena

Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

James Siena is renowned for his intricate, circuit board-like geometric abstractions. Like many contemporary abstractionists, Siena follows a highly personal process in his colorful abstractions. ...

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