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Curator's Corner

Recognize This Artist? Louise Nevelson

Monday, May 18, 2015 | Karl Cole

When I was teaching art history, I guess I was a student’s worst nightmare, because on tests I would not show them images of the works that they had seen in the book and in class. Instead, I wou ...

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Curator's Corner

Revisiting Gandhara

Monday, April 27, 2015 | Karl Cole

Believe it or not, this is a Buddhist bodhisattva (saint). My very first posting for this blog was about the Greek invasion of northern India and how it affected some of the earliest images of the Bud ...

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Curator's Corner

Another Art History Myth Busted: Northern Renaissance

Monday, March 9, 2015 | Karl Cole

I’m sure you are all familiar with the refrain we hear in art history books about the differences between the Renaissance in Northern Europe and Italy. Well, to put it mildly, the idea that the ...

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Curator's Corner

African American History Month 2015: William Edmondson

Monday, February 9, 2015 | Karl Cole

African American artists in the 21st century have embraced every art form, style, and new development, as well as pioneering many on their own. They have the added distinction of contributing a unique ...

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Curator's Corner

Survey No. 12: Abstraction

Monday, February 2, 2015 | Karl Cole

In our art history survey, we are now at the end with the 1900s. The big “revelation” in Western art starting very late in the 1800s and flowering in the early 1900s was abstraction. Abstr ...

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Curator's Corner

Survey No. 4: 1400s/1500s I

Monday, December 1, 2014 | Karl Cole

One of the bonuses of studying art history is learning about surprising connections when studying how cultures in the past interacted. Many times such interaction between cultures and the influence it ...

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Curator's Corner

Survey No. 3: Middle Ages

Monday, November 24, 2014 | Karl Cole

I’m not quite sure when the historical/art historical/cultural/religious term “Medieval” (the confluence of the Latin “medius,” middle, and “aevum,” age) came ...

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Curator's Corner

Hierarchical Size

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 | Karl Cole

Hierarchy is the level of importance allotted to an object, or, for the sake of this posting, a person. Hierarchical size deals with the principle of design known as proportion. Proportion has to do w ...

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Curator's Corner

Cross-Cultural Connections: Gandharan Style

Monday, September 29, 2014 | Karl Cole

It’s amazing to me how connected the cultures of the world are. One can no longer separate east and west when we see the art of northern India/Pakistan during the early years of Buddhist art. Bu ...

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Curator's Corner

Head Vessels

Monday, July 21, 2014 | Karl Cole

Effigy (portrait, human head, or whole figure) ceramic art (usually male) has been featured in all sorts of wares since ancient times from throughout the world. In many instances it is associated prim ...

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Curator's Corner

Early Renaissance Sculpture

Tuesday, May 27, 2014 | Karl Cole

Just this week, I became reacquainted with this BEAUTIFUL head from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, probably from Flanders/Burgundy. Being half-Swiss I naturally gravitated in college to the study of t ...

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Curator's Corner

Ode to Wood: Marisol

Monday, May 5, 2014 | Karl Cole

The Davis Art Gallery just opened a show called All About Wood. In that spirit, I’m showing you one of my favorite wood pieces. Several years ago at a Christmas party we played an art histo ...

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Curator's Corner

Pioneering American Woman Artist: Emma Stebbins

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 | Karl Cole

Considering how hard it was for women to be accepted as artists (in the United States) in the 1800s, and considering that it was frowned upon for them to attend art schools, it still amazes me how man ...

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Curator's Corner

My Amenhotep III Excitement

Monday, March 31, 2014 | Karl Cole

The typical art history dork in me skipped through an imaginary daisy field last week when I read this article about the display of artifacts from the tomb of Amenhotep III (died ca. 1354 bce) in Theb ...

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Curator's Corner

African American History Month 2014: Marion Perkins

Monday, March 3, 2014 | Karl Cole

I know that February is over, but I wanted to present one more African American artist who has such a compelling body of work. Marion Perkins’ sculpture presents the rich tradition of African sc ...

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Curator's Corner

Change Is Always Interesting: Jamb Sculpture

Monday, January 27, 2014 | Karl Cole

Do you ever look at something you’ve seen a jillion times and suddenly have a renewed appreciation for its beauty? That happens to me all the time. While cataloging, I came across images from ou ...

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