Blogs

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Paa Joe

Friday, November 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

Apprenticed to a coffin-maker at the age of 12, Paa Joe became one of the most honored Ghanaian coffin or abebuu adekai (“proverb boxes”) artists of his generation. ...

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Curator's Corner

To Mask or Not to Mask

Monday, August 2, 2021 | Karl Cole

The word “mask” gets an emotional response from some folks in these days of pandemic. I wonder, if the masks we're asked to wear looked like these following examples from Davis Digital&rsq ...

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Curator's Corner

No, this is not some sort of philosophical jaunt through current government threats to cut all funding for the arts and libraries, though goodness knows that could be a college dissertation. Actually, ...

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Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month

Friday, July 8, 2016 | Karl Cole

July is World Watercolor Month. I’m always happy to celebrate a medium in which I am really not terribly good. I have a feeling it’s because I’m an impatient Virgo who can’t st ...

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Curator's Corner

Utilitarian Object or Sculpture?

Friday, November 13, 2015 | Karl Cole

First of all, let me clarify the use of “utilitarian” or “decorative arts.” These are unfortunately terms art historians are stuck with from the 1800s art history gods in Weste ...

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Curator's Corner

Stories of Ruler Portraits

Monday, October 19, 2015 | Karl Cole

Since (ugh) election time coming around once again, let’s look at some interesting portraits of people who were never elected (except for the last one). There are always interesting tidbits abou ...

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Curator's Corner

African Realism: Yoruba

Monday, June 15, 2015 | Karl Cole

During the 1800s, when European invaders were exploiting the riches of the African continent, art historians were “astounded” at the richness and variety of African art. They had no knowle ...

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Curator's Corner

Some Thoughts about Stools

Monday, May 11, 2015 | Karl Cole

Does furniture have a soul? I sort of think it does. We sit on, lean on, and lie down on furniture for most of our lives. It’s hard to believe that something of our souls does not get infused in ...

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Curator's Corner

African American History Month 2015: William Edmondson

Monday, February 9, 2015 | Karl Cole

African American artists in the 21st century have embraced every art form, style, and new development, as well as pioneering many on their own. They have the added distinction of contributing a unique ...

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Curator's Corner

Survey No. 12: Abstraction

Monday, February 2, 2015 | Karl Cole

In our art history survey, we are now at the end with the 1900s. The big “revelation” in Western art starting very late in the 1800s and flowering in the early 1900s was abstraction. Abstr ...

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Curator's Corner

Survey No. 7: The 1700s

Monday, December 22, 2014 | Karl Cole

As we approach the 1800s in our Art History Survey, just so we do not forget (as if) that art was being produced in other parts of the world besides the West, let’s look elsewhere at art produce ...

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Curator's Corner

Sous-Verre Painting: Gora Mbengue

Monday, March 10, 2014 | Karl Cole

I once watched an artist in Switzerland do a reverse painting on glass, and the technique amazed me. As an artist, one is thinking in reverse, literally painting details and foreground first, then mid ...

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Curator's Corner

My Mask Mania: Nuna Culture

Monday, April 29, 2013 | Karl Cole

Thanks to Steven Tatum at Virginia Tech for educating me about African masks, an art form I’ve long been fascinated by. The variety of forms and uses boggles my Western European accustomed mind! ...

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Curator's Corner

An African Photographer: Seydou Keïta

Monday, October 18, 2010 | Karl Cole

In looking at the history of art, I always try to appreciate art that is under-appreciated. Photography has been accepted as an art form since the early 1900s, although is it rarely studied outside of ...

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Curator's Corner

Another Vanishing Tradition? Nigerian Wax-resist Textiles

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 | Karl Cole

What do we in the West think of when the word “African art” is mentioned? masks? ancestor figures? In most African cultures, textile arts are considered THE finest of the fine arts. ...

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Curator's Corner

African Metal Casting: Benin Kingdom

Monday, August 31, 2009 | Karl Cole

As you probably know by now, I think it is unfortunate when stylistic, technical, or aesthetic trends in the arts are only considered in some art history textbooks in comparison to Western (European a ...

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Blogs

African art

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Artist Birthday: Paa Joe

To Mask or Not to Mask

The Bill for Art

World Watercolor Month

Utilitarian Object or Sculpture?

Stories of Ruler Portraits

African Realism: Yoruba

Some Thoughts about Stools

African American History Month 2015: William Edmondson

Survey No. 12: Abstraction

Survey No. 7: The 1700s

Sous-Verre Painting: Gora Mbengue

My Mask Mania: Nuna Culture

An African Photographer: Seydou Keïta

Another Vanishing Tradition? Nigerian Wax-resist Textiles

African Metal Casting: Benin Kingdom

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Always Stay in the Loop