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American painting

Curator's Corner

National Bring Someone Flowers Day: Art by Joseph Blackburn (ca. 1730-ca. 1778 US)

Friday, May 15, 2026 | Karl Cole

Although the origins of this national day are obscure, National Bring Someone Flowers Day has been celebrated on 15 May to encourage the spur-of-the-moment gesture of giving flowers to someone dear. B ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Frank Stella (1936-2024 US)

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 | Karl Cole

The paintings, sculptures and installations of Frank Stella have defied a single stylistic designation throughout his career. He among the many artists who established their mature artistic vision in ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: William Bradford (1823-1892 US)

Thursday, April 30, 2026 | Karl Cole

One of the most interesting developments in American art history was the evolution of an American “school” of landscape painting, as Americans grew to cherish their new country with wildly ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Richard Diebenkorn / Happy Earth Day

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | Karl Cole

What better way to dual celebrate Earth Day/Birthday than a landscape! The first original American modernist art movement, called Abstract Expressionism, flourished between the late 1940s into the 196 ...

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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

Artist Birthday for: Clarence Carter (1904-2000 US)

Thursday, March 26, 2026 | Karl Cole

Clarence Holbrook Carter was a painter primarily known for his depictions of American life in the period between world wars (1918-1940). He is particularly well known for his riveting views of rural A ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: John Smibert (1688-1751 US, born Scotland)

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | Karl Cole

The first successful, trained painter to open a studio in the American colonies (in Boston), John Smibert represented the archetypal society portrait painter that the newly prosperous New England colo ...

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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: Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822 US)

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 | Karl Cole

Charles Peale Polk faced a rough childhood when both parents died in the same period, but Polk was fortunate to have a successful artist uncle in Philadelphia, with whom he went to live at the age of ...

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Curator's Corner

Spring is Almost Here...Really

Monday, March 16, 2026 | Karl Cole

I have not shown a Childe Hassam (1859-1935 US) since around 2012, and I am such a big fan of his painting, I could not resist celebrating the coming of spring (on 20 March) with this spring green of ...

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Curator's Corner

March is Women's History Month

Monday, March 9, 2026 | Karl Cole

There was a period in the early 1900s, before World War I (1914-1918) when many American artists looked to European painting for inspiration and modern modes of expression, including abstraction. Even ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Anna Claypoole Peale (1791-1878 US)

Friday, March 6, 2026 | Karl Cole

Anna Claypoole Peale was a member of the first established “dynasty” of American painters that started with Charles Willson (1741-1827) and James (1749-1831) Peale of Philadelphia. The las ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Elihu Vedder (1836-1923 US)

Thursday, February 26, 2026 | Karl Cole

The American painter Elihu Vedder is remembered primarily for his Symbolist style of painting, which emphasized Gothic and Romantic fantasy. His early work was soundly within the mid-century Realism m ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alice Neel

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | Karl Cole

Alice Neel was a great American portraitist. Her portraits were insightfully realistic, although not to the point of Photorealism, for her works tended to emphasize rich color. The most enduring aspec ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Robert Longo

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 | Karl Cole

Robert Longo is a painter, filmmaker, photographer and musician. He first came to prominence in the 1980s, part of the Neo-Expressionism aesthetic with his Men in Cities series of works which cast ...

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Curator's Corner

National Apple Tree Day, Jan. 6: Worthington Whittredge

Tuesday, January 6, 2026 | Karl Cole

  There’s no shortage of gorgeous 1800s American paintings of apples at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but this is one of my favorite to celebrate National Apple Tree Day. Nation ...

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