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National Iris Day: Muhammad Zaman

Thursday, May 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

The iris is a beautiful flower that was first planted in the United States in Virginia in the 1600s. The flower started being commercially imported around 1869. The iris is the symbol for the city of ...

Curator's Corner

An Image of Royal Power Attributed to Muhammad Hasan

Monday, November 18, 2024 | Karl Cole

In the history of portrait painting, it is fascinating to interpret what the artist is trying to convey about the sitter. Sometimes when the portrait is of a member of a ruling family, it’s pret ...

Curator's Corner

National Garden Month: Amer Fort

Monday, April 1, 2024 | Karl Cole

I can’t think of a more appropriate month for National Garden Month than April, when we are fresh from winter and want to go outside and see flowers. April was first declared National Garden Mon ...

Curator's Corner

Saying Goodbye to World Watercolor Month 2023

Monday, July 31, 2023 | Karl Cole

Watercolor can be a very unforgiving medium—boy, don’t I know it! I started out studying for an MFA in painting using gouache and watercolor, but my professors suggested that what I was tr ...

Curator's Corner

Beautiful in Cobalt Blue

Monday, August 15, 2022 | Karl Cole

Being a painter, I have colors that I consider essential to almost every painting I make. I tend to prefer phthalo and cobalt colors. (Safety note: yes, I always wear gloves when I paint.) O ...

Curator's Corner

Wistful about Writing: Tughra

Monday, July 11, 2022 | Karl Cole

I am painfully aware that very few people learn to write in cursive these days. When I was a teaching assistant in grad school, some students couldn’t read my grading remarks because I wrote the ...

Curator's Corner

Muthanna: Calligraphic Mirror Writing

Monday, January 31, 2022 | Karl Cole

I’m celebrating two national days today with this beautiful calligraphy—National Backward Day and National Inspire your Heart with Art Day. What better way than with an image of calligraph ...

Curator's Corner

Romance Awareness Month: Suzuki Harunobu, Etruria, Safavid

Monday, August 16, 2021 | Karl Cole

I was not aware of the association of romance with the month of August, but I think it’s refreshing. On one website that explains national month days, it said that “February isn’t th ...

Curator's Corner

Rethinking Classicism: Safavid Dynasty

Thursday, August 13, 2020 | Karl Cole

Today's Rethinking Classicism post brings us to the city of Isfahan, Iran. The Safavid dynasty (1501–1736) was a cultural pinnacle in Persian history. The Safavid rulers were massive patrons of ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: The Blue Mosque

Tuesday, November 12, 2019 | Karl Cole

Istanbul is yet another one of the places on my “to see” list that I probably will never get to see. One of the big draws for me to that city—besides its amazing history as the forme ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Mughal Architecture

Monday, July 29, 2019 | Karl Cole

Aside from painting, architecture is one of the most stunning legacies of the Mughal Empire that ruled most of India between 1526 and (technically) 1857, when it was dissolved by the British East Indi ...

Curator's Corner

A Meal and a Plate for It

Monday, November 19, 2018 | Karl Cole

This week, I’m going to recognize Thanksgiving with works of art, rather than odes to a holiday that has evolved from “giving thanks for blessings” to gluttony and narcissism (gee, n ...

Curator's Corner

A Multicultural Proclaimer: Safavid Dynasty

Monday, December 18, 2017 | Karl Cole

Westerners usually think of the Archangel Gabriel in terms of Christmas cards depicting the Annunciation, when he proclaimed to Mary that she would conceive Jesus. Well, it turns out that he was a mul ...

Curator's Corner

It's All in the Details: Hoysala Dynasty and Safavid Dynasty

Thursday, March 9, 2017 | Karl Cole

The sculptural decoration of Hoysala dynasty (ca. 1050–ca. 1346) architecture is particularly ornate and worth scoping out. In the West, we are so inundated with data about the “sculpture ...

Curator's Corner

What Type of Balance? You Decide.

Monday, November 14, 2016 | Karl Cole

I probably shouldn’t be using the word Balance after the latest election. Let’s ignore that by doing some visual exercises. I’m always intrigued with the issue of “balance&rdqu ...

Curator's Corner

Letters Are Beautiful

Thursday, October 13, 2016 | Karl Cole

I learned long ago how venerated calligraphy is in some cultures, and we speak of that in many of our Davis books. A short while ago as I was reading about contemporary Iranian artist Parastou Forouha ...

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National Iris Day: Muhammad Zaman

An Image of Royal Power Attributed to Muhammad Hasan

National Garden Month: Amer Fort

Saying Goodbye to World Watercolor Month 2023

Beautiful in Cobalt Blue

Wistful about Writing: Tughra

Muthanna: Calligraphic Mirror Writing

Romance Awareness Month: Suzuki Harunobu, Etruria, Safavid

Rethinking Classicism: Safavid Dynasty

Gem of the Month: The Blue Mosque

Gem of the Month: Mughal Architecture

A Meal and a Plate for It

A Multicultural Proclaimer: Safavid Dynasty

It's All in the Details: Hoysala Dynasty and Safavid Dynasty

What Type of Balance? You Decide.

Letters Are Beautiful

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