The origins of this recognition day is uncertain, but Umbrella Day has been celebrated since 2004. The origins of the contemporary, waterproof umbrella date to the 1700s in France, while umbrellas as ...
Read ArticleI continue to celebrate winter, my second favorite season after autumn, with yet another snow scene. Eisen Keisai is typical of the artists of the classic Ukiyo-e period (late 1700s to early 1800s), i ...
Read ArticleI cannot image a better way than saying “goodbye” to 2025 than with the uplifting, positive sentiments reserved for the pine tree in Japanese and Chinese cultures. There are very few e ...
Read Article“Rites of passage” refer to cultures all over the world in which certain birthdays are celebrated as stepping stones to a new period of life. A Japanese example is Shichi-go-san. The n ...
Read ArticleSekino Junichirō was a woodblock printmaker in the sōsaku hanga movement, in which the artists draws the subject, cuts the woodblock, and prints the image themselves. These artists often incorpora ...
Read ArticleThe 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 ...
Read ArticleKatsuhiro Yamaguchi was a key figure in the transition to modernism in Japanese art after World War II (1939–1945). He incorporated his view of modernist experiment almost as a science into nume ...
Read ArticleNational Pet Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 11. It was founded 2005/2006 by animal advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert Colleen Paige. The day is dedicated to all types of pe ...
Read ArticleMonthly artists’ birthdays are a good way to introduce you to a variety of artists I actually adore, while contrasting art from vastly different cultures. I’m not going to call it “i ...
Read ArticleWhen Western art history books talk about “architectural sculpture,” it is usually in the context of Romanesque and Gothic churches/cathedrals in Europe. When one is looking at temple arch ...
Read ArticleSince I’m feeling lazy this week, I’m showing you Japanese New Year cards (surimono) again. I think they’re lovely, and who wouldn’t want to receive one of these color woodcut ...
Read ArticleArt in the 1800s brought us the terms Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism, covered in my New Slant on Art History. The second half of the century saw a major shift in how artists used art to portr ...
Read ArticleI think an alternate term for art of the 1600s is needed other than “Baroque.” Baroque is the established stylistic term for the period roughly 1600–1750 in Western art. The term com ...
Read ArticleSometimes I wonder if, unfortunately, most Westerners only know about Korea in relation to that unfortunate war in the 1950s or because of contemporary politics in North Korea. This is yet anothe ...
Read ArticleWhen I was in grad school, I was a teaching assistant in an art history survey course that had the neatest syllabus at which I ever squinted at eight in the morning. It did not go chronologically thro ...
Read ArticleI know I showed a Japanese artist’s work last week, but I got so excited when I came across this woodcut print that I just had to share it with you. It’s a perfect example of saturation&nb ...
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