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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 ...

Curator's Corner

A Beautiful Idea...and Building: Louis Bourgeois

Tuesday, October 13, 2015 | Karl Cole

Once, while on a plane landing at O’Hare when I lived in Chicago, the sun was going down and we flew in low over this spectacular building. I’ll never forget that sight. And, yes, it was i ...

Curator's Corner

Too Nice to Put on the Floor: Nasrid Kingdom

Monday, June 29, 2015 | Karl Cole

Every so often I learn about a period in history in a certain place that seemed to have everything going for it—relative peace, flourishing economy and vibrant artistic culture, and a government ...

Curator's Corner

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Monday, January 19, 2015 | Karl Cole

So far we have taken a look at Classicism and Romanticism around the world in the 1800s. Now let’s look at “realism,” which—like every other style—has been a trend somewh ...

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 ...

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 ...

Curator's Corner

Calligraphy/Typeface as Abstraction

Monday, September 23, 2013 | Karl Cole

Abstraction is defined as the reduction of form to simple (geometric, or organic) or decorative (a word I hate) shapes. I’ve blogged briefly about calligraphy in the past, but I rarely get a cha ...

Curator's Corner

Beauty in Syria and Egypt: Blown Glass

Monday, August 26, 2013 | Karl Cole

Considering the unfortunate circumstances in Syria and Egypt presently, I thought I would present some art from that region to show what beautiful things have come out of Syria and Egypt. ...

Curator's Corner

The Art of Fiber: Islamic Art

Monday, May 21, 2012 | Karl Cole

The Davis Art Gallery is currently holding a show called The Art of Fiber. It has always interested me that fiber arts were considered a “minor art.” It is one of the oldest art forms next ...

Curator's Corner

Spring on Tile: Ottoman Empire

Monday, April 11, 2011 | Karl Cole

Ever since I fell in like with American “art pottery” years ago—with the wonderful tile work that those companies produced at the turn of the twentieth century—I’ve been ...

Curator's Corner

Importance of Portraits III: Mughal Dynasty

Monday, September 13, 2010 | Karl Cole

Mughal art, the art produced in the Islamic empire in India, is fascinating because of its blending of artistic traditions from other Muslim lands, indigenous Indian art, and western European influenc ...

Curator's Corner

Calligraphy = Line: Safavid Dynasty

Monday, March 23, 2009 | Karl Cole

In most of our Davis textbooks and studio books, we talk about the ELEMENTS OF ART. One of the key elements of art is LINE. We can look at line not simply as a way of defining a shape, but also how be ...

Curator's Corner

A Non-European Renaissance: Riza Abbasi

Monday, January 26, 2009 | Karl Cole

When we think of great periods of flowering in the arts, we, as westerners, usually think of the European Renaissance or the Baroque periods, or Ancient Greece. I think it is very important that we un ...

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World Watercolor Month

A Beautiful Idea...and Building: Louis Bourgeois

Too Nice to Put on the Floor: Nasrid Kingdom

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Survey No. 7: The 1700s

Sous-Verre Painting: Gora Mbengue

Calligraphy/Typeface as Abstraction

Beauty in Syria and Egypt: Blown Glass

The Art of Fiber: Islamic Art

Spring on Tile: Ottoman Empire

Importance of Portraits III: Mughal Dynasty

Calligraphy = Line: Safavid Dynasty

A Non-European Renaissance: Riza Abbasi

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