Abstraction is Nothing New: Ancient Egypt
I’m making a declaration: artists were inspired to create abstract art thousands of years ago. When one (and by “one” I mean a person reading an art history text) reads about any art ...
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Curator's Corner
African American History Month 2015: William Edmondson
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
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. 7: The 1700s
As we approach the 1800s in our Art History Survey, just so we do not forget (as if) that art was being produced in other parts of the world besides the West, let’s look elsewhere at art produce ...
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Curator's Corner
Sous-Verre Painting: Gora Mbengue
I once watched an artist in Switzerland do a reverse painting on glass, and the technique amazed me. As an artist, one is thinking in reverse, literally painting details and foreground first, then mid ...
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Curator's Corner
My Mask Mania: Nuna Culture
Thanks to Steven Tatum at Virginia Tech for educating me about African masks, an art form I’ve long been fascinated by. The variety of forms and uses boggles my Western European accustomed mind! ...
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Curator's Corner
An African Photographer: Seydou Keïta
In looking at the history of art, I always try to appreciate art that is under-appreciated. Photography has been accepted as an art form since the early 1900s, although is it rarely studied outside of ...
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Curator's Corner
Another Vanishing Tradition? Nigerian Wax-resist Textiles
What do we in the West think of when the word “African art” is mentioned? masks? ancestor figures? In most African cultures, textile arts are considered THE finest of the fine arts. ...
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Curator's Corner
African Metal Casting: Benin Kingdom
As you probably know by now, I think it is unfortunate when stylistic, technical, or aesthetic trends in the arts are only considered in some art history textbooks in comparison to Western (European a ...
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