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Curator's Corner

A Weekly Beauty Attack

Monday, May 11, 2026 | Karl Cole

Beauty Attack Monday 11th of May is also the birthday of major Op Art artist Yaacov Agam (France, born 1928 Palestine [present day Israel]). Agam along with Julio le Parc (born 1928 Argentina) and Jes ...

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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

Canadian Modernist Paul-Émile Borduas

Monday, September 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

In the past few years, I have become very fond of Canadian modernism, particularly from the early to mid-1900s. Paul-Émile Borduas was a pivotal figure in Canadian art. He bridged modernist ten ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Leon Polk Smith

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Karl Cole

Leon Polk Smith was an American artist of Cherokee descent who was a pioneer of modernism long before Abstract Expressionism evolved in New York. His works throughout his career emphasized a pure geom ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Jean Hélion

Monday, April 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jean Hélion was a member of a number of artists’ groups between World Wars I and II which advocated for total, non-objective abstraction. Ironically, after World War II he lost his tenaci ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Victor Vasarely

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 | Karl Cole

The study of the optical effects possible in the manipulation of color and shape that began with the Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat (1895–1891) and Paul Signac (1863–1935) in the late 1 ...

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Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Janet Sobel

Monday, March 31, 2025 | Karl Cole

It is not often that we discover an artist whose work may have had a major impact on the direction of American art. But Janet Sobel is one such artist. You think Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) was ...

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Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Gertrude Greene

Monday, March 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Among the many women artists who deserve recognition in the history of art, Gertrude Greene is certainly toward the top of my list. She was a standup, persistent modernist during the difficult economi ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Barnett Newman

Wednesday, January 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

Barnett Newman’s earliest paintings share the organic/biomorphic abstract forms of Mark Rothko’s early works from the 1940s. By 1946, however, his forms began to be more abstract and shed ...

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Curator's Corner

Jackson Pollock Month

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

The birthday of New York School painter Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) is January 28th, so I’m going to call January 2025 "Curator's Corner Jackson Pollock Month." I often feel that ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Joan Mitchell

Monday, November 27, 2023 | Karl Cole

As a fiend for color in painting, it will come as no surprise that I absolutely worship the work of Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell. It’s very confusing to me—no, it’s i ...

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Curator's Corner

An August Painting: Mark Tobey

Monday, August 14, 2023 | Karl Cole

I know we’re no longer on the “edge of August,” but this painting’s title gives me an excuse to showcase the work of one of the less-hyped New York School artists. Like many of ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Morgan Russell

Monday, July 10, 2023 | Karl Cole

As I did with Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) last week, I'm presenting another American original today: Morgan Russell. Russell was one of the first American artists to exhibit nono ...

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Curator's Corner

AAPI Heritage Month 2022: Kim Hwan-gi

Monday, May 23, 2022 | Karl Cole

Kim Hwan-gi (Kim Whanki) was a pioneer modernist in Korean art and subsequently in American art after he immigrated in 1963. His pioneering abstract works added greatly to the rich modernist atmospher ...

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Curator's Corner

Women's (Art) History Month: Vera Klement

Monday, March 29, 2021 | Karl Cole

I have always been fascinated by how progressive (i.e., abstract) styles have continually found their footing as a counterpoint to the pervasive tradition of realism in American art since the early 19 ...

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Curator's Corner

April in a New Perspective: Pierre Soulages

Monday, April 13, 2020 | Karl Cole

I’ve been a big admirer of Pierre Soulages’s work since I saw a show featuring him and Swiss artist Gérard Schneider (1896–1986) when I was home a few years ago. The ...

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A Weekly Beauty Attack

Artist Birthday: Asger Jorn (1914-1973 Denmark)

Canadian Modernist Paul-Émile Borduas

Artist Birthday: Leon Polk Smith

Artist Birthday: Jean Hélion

Artist Birthday: Victor Vasarely

Women's History Month: Janet Sobel

Women's History Month: Gertrude Greene

Artist Birthday: Barnett Newman

Jackson Pollock Month

Gem of the Month: Joan Mitchell

An August Painting: Mark Tobey

Gem of the Month: Morgan Russell

AAPI Heritage Month 2022: Kim Hwan-gi

Women's (Art) History Month: Vera Klement

April in a New Perspective: Pierre Soulages

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Always Stay in the Loop