Pioneer Etcher in Chicago: Bertha E. Jaques
I always delight in sharing with you my many “Aha!” moments. One I had this week came while strolling through my mental art collection, pondering the element of positive and negative space ...
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Curator's Corner
Yakimono: Sugiura Yasuyoshi
Yakimono in Japanese refers to a “fired thing.” A reverence for nature has historically been part of Japanese art since ancient times. Interestingly, the evocation of the respect for natur ...
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Curator's Corner
What's Old is New: Modern Gothic of Dominikus Böhm
I am ending this theme with a simply beautiful piece of architecture. The architect who designed it is not a household name in western art history, but I think he should be. Dominikus Böhm’ ...
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Curator's Corner
What's New Is Old: Op Art of Susie Rosmarin
I was a child in the 1960s, so I don’t really remember the Op Art phenomenon. However, my last year in high school, our art teacher had us do a drawing in pastels that emulated Op Art. I still h ...
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Curator's Corner
What's Old is New: Badarian Ceramics
I don’t usually go Gaga over ceramics (well, wait, yes I do!), but when we added this image to our collection I had a “never knew that” moment. Most art history texts cover the ancie ...
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Curator's Corner
The Anonymous Artist: J.T. Bowen
While accessioning the John James Audubon Quadruped series this week, something occurred to me that I never really considered before, call it my “Hmmm” moment of the week: In the hist ...
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Curator's Corner
New Acquisitions: American Surrealist Helen Lundeberg
I close out my Month of New Acquisitions with a pioneer American modernist. Pioneer because she was exploring avant-garde art at a time in America that it was not popular. ...
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Curator's Corner
New Acquisitions: Classic Minimalist Carl Andre
My fascination with modernism (doesn’t that term sound old-fashioned)—let me rephrase that—forward-thinking art never seems to diminish. Call me lucky (I think I am), but as we add n ...
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Curator's Corner
New Acquisitions: Treasured Renaissance Book
I’ve really admired the work of manuscript illuminators since I went to the Newbury Library at the University of Chicago while in grad school. I got to actually hold some of these precious works ...
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Curator's Corner
New Acquisition: Silkscreen of Walter Darby Bannard
Although I wrote a master’s thesis on Swiss Renaissance art, since then (I’m not saying how long ago that was!) I have become a big fan of the New York School that bloomed immediately foll ...
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