What's in a Snake 2: Deccan Painting
Yesterday I introduced the snake as a subject in art. Here’s an example of a sinister serpent/person in Hindu tradition. Aghasura was a demon follower of the evil (pseudo-demon) king Kamsa (of M ...
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Curator's Corner
What's in a Snake 1: Mississippian Culture
I really don’t have anything against snakes. Snakes may have something against me, after I once, as a teenager, accidentally planted one of my size-12 gunboats on a garter snake and it bit me. M ...
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Curator's Corner
American Renaissance Architecture: Frank Furness
“American Renaissance” is sometimes used to refer, stylistically, to the period between the Civil War (1860–1865) and 1900. Some call the same period “Victorian,” but, Vi ...
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Curator's Corner
Vietnam Part 3: Dinh Q. Lê
Yesterday I told you about Vietnamese art from the 1500s. For today’s final installment in my series about Vietnamese art, let’s take a look at some contemporary art. ...
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Curator's Corner
Vietnam Part 2: Ceramics
Yesterday I told you about the Champa kingdom that flourished in Vietnam. For the second post in my series on Vietnamese art, I will introduce you to the development of ceramics in Vietnam. ...
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Curator's Corner
Vietnam Part 1: Champa Kingdom
And speaking of political disasters this past week, I’m pretty sure most folks would agree that the Vietnam War (1955–1975) was one of them in the past. My problem with that—aside fr ...
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Curator's Corner
January/Hair
I had originally intended to post something about the month of January. That idea seemed lame to me when this piece by the late Hannah Wilke caught my eye (especially after I found out the backstory) ...
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Curator's Corner
New Year for the Sensibilities
Leave it to Honoré Daumier to sum up a personality that could be any number of jerks in our current narrow-minded, materialistic, me-me-me culture. In honor of the advent of 2017, I decided to ...
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Curator's Corner
First Snow Response
In the last week we had our first measurable snow in Massachusetts. I’m totally the kind of dork who’s all “it’s so pretty to walk around when it’s snowing.” And si ...
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Curator's Corner
Peruvian Splendor: Wari Culture
If you are one of those folks (I’m not) who believe that the highest point in aesthetics was attained in the art of ancient Greece and Rome, then you probably do consider the period after the do ...
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