Winter's Almost Here: Ruth Cyril
Winter is near. Although I’m often drawn to brilliant color palettes in landscapes, I find this winter example just as enticing to walk into. Remember the common wisdom established by Song ...
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Curator's Corner
National Illinois Day
Being an art historian originally from Illinois, you just know that I have to celebrate National Illinois Day with some art. I chose two fascinating artists from Chicago. ...
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Curator's Corner
The Month of Frost: Hashimoto Gahō
It’s the last day of November 2020. In Japan, the historical (traditional) calendar was based on the Chinese lunar calendar, which meant that months began three to seven weeks later than the Gre ...
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Curator's Corner
Being Thankful for Art: Claude Monet
Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to be grateful for the gifts with which we’ve been endowed in life, not gluttony. One of the things I’m eternally grateful for is the many, many, many ...
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Curator's Corner
Kittens and Bunnies
It’s been a crazy year with this awful pandemic going on, and an equally crazy last two weeks with this nutty election. I think we all need some kittens and bunnies to recoup our mental health. ...
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Curator's Corner
The Headgear of Ancient Egypt
Since I was a child art historian (there is such a thing), I have been fascinated by the art and culture of ancient Egypt. Aside from the amazing continuity of almost 3000 years in their canonized art ...
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Curator's Corner
Autumn Color: Ellen Robbins and Hans Hofmann
The last few weeks have been wonderful for the array of reds, violets, maroons, yellows, and oranges contrasting with still-green trees in central Massachusetts. And if you think that doesn’t ge ...
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Curator's Corner
European Abstraction: Pierre Alechinsky
October 19th is the birthday of the brilliant, expressive colorist Pierre Alechinsky, who was part of CoBrA, an important modernist group in the Netherlands after World War II (1939–1945). CoBrA ...
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Curator's Corner
Hispanic Heritage Month: Ancient Art
If you ever study the history of ancient Central and South America, you will immediately become, as I have, completely enthralled with the history of our hemisphere. For the variety of incredibly soph ...
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Curator's Corner
Hispanic Heritage Month: Chimú of Peru
Like many Mesoamerican and South American cultures, ancient Peruvians developed large city-states with religious-secular rulers. The landscape in northern South America is very different from tha ...
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