Fashion and Society: 1700s France
I’ve talked about fashion relating to politics. This entry will relate to society at the time of one of the most outlandish periods in fashion: France in the 1750s through 1780s during the reign ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Vacation: Leisure Time in Art
Since vacation is on everyone’s mind now that summer is in full swing, let’s just look at works of art that spout vacation, special day off, or festival. And, yes, this can be an art histo ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Sculpture as Jewelry: Liv Blåvarp
As you know, I consider artists in any medium to be ARTISTS, not “artisans” or “craftspeople” or “decorative artists.” When one looks at jewelry, even if it has bee ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Wari: Andean Textile Arts
Recently a royal tomb of the Andean Wari culture was excavated in Peru about 175 miles north of Lima. It contained the mummified bodies of 57 royal women and 6 female servants (assumed sacrificed). Th ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
American Originals: Morgan Russell and Stanton MacDonald-Wright
I’ve mentioned in previous blogs how spotty modernism was in American art in the early 1900s. Since the colonial period, American artists had a tenacious obsession with realism, including the wo ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Furniture conforming to...? Jere Osgood
Traditionally, furniture was designed to conform to the human body and what was being worn at the time. That’s why we see low side chairs with no arms during the mid-1800s when women were wearin ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Lacquer: Japanese Negoro Ware
The art of lacquer has long fascinated me. When I was in an Asian Art seminar in college (decades ago), I learned that ancient Chinese bodies coated in lacquer still had supple skin. Now that’s ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Windsor Connection
My nephew just repainted our kitchen table and chairs. It occurred to me that the chairs are modern day versions of the Windsor chair. Our chairs even have the elegant h-stretcher joining the legs, an ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Brueghel (Bruegel) Family
Having ancestry in northern Europe (Switzerland), I naturally gravitated toward Northern Renaissance art in college. I’m particularly fond of Flemish artists, because they reflect a similar unva ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
A Unique Design: Maria Benktzon
In the mid-1900s, Scandinavian artists emerged at the forefront of modernism in all facets of design: architecture, furniture, and the art of household objects. Among them were many women who came up ...
Read More
