The Idea of Tomb Figures: Six Dynasties Period
I recently attended the wake of a friend’s mom and couldn’t help but contemplate how contemporary funerary rituals differ from those in world history (especially an open coffin). If you pu ...
Read More
< Back to Curator's Corner
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 ...
Read More
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 ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
American Art Pottery Pioneer: Mary Louise McLaughlin
I’ve told you all about American Art Pottery in a previous blog. It’s a fascinating topic, because it is evidence of the major impact of women artists on the American art scene, one of the ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Fancy Paint Box: Josiah Wedgwood
I always look for artistic beauty in everyday objects, and I have shown you many that really caught my eye. But this piece has got to be the high point of this concept. Actually, this Wedgwood piece a ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
A Taste for the "Exotic"? Sèvres Porcelain
Having blossomed into teen-hood in the 1970s, I often like to compare some of the “art” that emerged in the 1800s with the 1970s. It’s like, “what were they thinking?” Th ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Something Completely Different: Chelsea Porcelain
I am a big admirer of artists who produce porcelain. I don’t own any, but I sure love to see examples in museums. Porcelain was first produced in China in the first millennium CE and in Japan in ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Mesoamerica-North American Connection: Mississippian Culture
I just finished my part of work on the revision of our studio book about clay and so I thought I would show you a ceramic artwork this week. As an art historian, I enjoy making connections between cul ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Art in Everyday Life: Ancient Greece
As I’ve mentioned before, I resist the Western art historical tendency to consider the art of ancient Greece and Rome as the high points of artistic achievement, in a broad view of art around th ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Art in Everyday Life: J. Palin Thorley
While looking at images for the revision of one of our books, I came across an image of a metal pitcher from the 1930s. It had such clean, modern lines that it could easily be mistaken for a contempor ...
Read More