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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: Laura Shechter

Tuesday, August 26, 2025 | Karl Cole

Laura Shechter is an extraordinarily gifted, contemporary realist still life artist who is part of the large body of American artists who have persisted in pursuing the cherished American love of obse ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alvan Fisher

Friday, August 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

At the time Alvan Fisher began painting landscapes, the Hudson River School had not yet formed in New England. Fisher was among less than a handful of artists who were dedicated to landscape painting. ...

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Curator's Corner

National Oyster Day: Osias Beert, the Elder

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Art historians consider Osias Beert possibly the first significant Baroque Flemish still life painter. The still life medium was just catching on in popularity during his period of activity, ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Oqwa Pi

Friday, August 1, 2025 | Karl Cole

Oqwa Pi, whose name translates as Katsina Stick, was part of a generation of Native American artists who attended the Santa Fe Indian School, and took painting classes in The Studio. The school wa ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Juan Sánchez Cotán

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | Karl Cole

Juan Sánchez Cotán was a Spanish Baroque painter who helped popularize the still life genre in Spanish Baroque painting. Spanish Renaissance and Baroque art were greatly influenced by th ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Conrad Marca-Relli

Thursday, June 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Conrad Marca-Relli was part of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionism, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. His artistic vision, however, was uniquely apart from eit ...

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Curator's Corner

National Cheese Day: Clara Peeters

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | Karl Cole

Although little is known about her upbringing or training, Peeters was one of a growing number of women artists who were widely acclaimed as professional artists. She was also a pioneer in the relativ ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Wols (A.O.W. Schulze)

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | Karl Cole

Wols was a major figure in the School of Paris that developed after World War I (1914–1918). He was a pioneering artist in Lyrical Abstraction, and was a major influence on the Tachisme movement ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Erastus Salisbury Field

Monday, May 19, 2025 | Karl Cole

Erastus Salisbury Field was an essentially self-taught painter who produced portraits, landscapes, and history subjects in his long career. He was one of the most successful of the great early America ...

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Curator's Corner

National Love a Tree Day: Sylvia P. Mangold

Friday, May 16, 2025 | Karl Cole

Mangold is very fond of the trees that were on her country property and they became frequent subjects of her paintings. She would definitely approve of National Love a Tree Day, which encourages every ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Thomas Gainsborough

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | Karl Cole

Thomas Gainsborough’s art was the epitome of the elegant, sophisticated and generally low-key Rococo style that characterized late 1700s British art. It was a major contrast to the flamboyant, o ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Ynez Johnston

Monday, May 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Ynez Johnston’s unique style blends modernism and ancient art forms from her travels to Italy, Mexico, India and Nepal. Johnston also created three dimensional pieces in collaboration with her h ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Ralph Goings

Friday, May 9, 2025 | Karl Cole

The Photorealism movement, which evolved during the late 1960s as a counterpoint to the pervasive Minimalism, Conceptualism, and abstraction in American art, blossomed fully during the 1970s. Into the ...

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Curator's Corner

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 ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Jules Breton

Thursday, May 1, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jules Breton was a unique artist of the Realism movement in France in the mid-1800s. Having grown up with poor rural farmers in northern France, he understood their lives and labors. His paintings pre ...

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