National Beverage Day
National Beverage Day began around 1921 or 1922, originally known as National Carbonated Beverage Day. The day encourages people to grab their favorite drink and relax with friends. But, beverages are ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Robert Kobayashi (1925-2015 US)
There were many Japanese-American artists who served in the US military during World War II (1939-1945) and afterwards became leaders in American modernism. Robert Kobayashi was a unique modernist who ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938 US)
This month's "Gem" is also a 4 May Birthday! Whether Thomas Wilmer Dewing is labeled an Impressionist, Tonalist, or Aesthetics artist, his beautiful portraits, mostly of youngish women, ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
International Workers' Day (May Day): Art by Diego Rivera (1886-1957 Mexico)
International Workers’ Day commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Riots in Chicago where workers were fired upon by police protesting for workers’ rights for an eight-hour work day after one prot ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: William Bradford (1823-1892 US)
One of the most interesting developments in American art history was the evolution of an American “school” of landscape painting, as Americans grew to cherish their new country with wildly ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Jonas Lie (1880-1940 US, born Norway)
Jonas Lie was a prominent poster artist during the American Poster “Renaissance” in the early 1900s. He is best known for his patriotic paintings of the American effort in World Wars I (19 ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Yves Klein (1928-1962 France)
During the turbulent post-World War II (1939-1945) years, it is no surprise that art movements arose – as they did after World War I (1914-1918) – that questioned the validity of entrenche ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
A Barber's Bowl Bouquet for Spring
When visiting a museum collection, I have always marveled at objects meant for medical, military or some other non-aesthetic purpose are, just the same, beautifully decorated. This happened recently w ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Willem de Kooning (1904-1997 US, born Netherlands)
Abstract Expressionism, which developed in the 1940s primarily in New York, was the first original American modernism art movement. Willem de Kooning was one of the leading artists of this group, also ...
Read Article
Curator's Corner
National Picnic Day: Art by Mori Keiko (born 1939 Japan)
Keiko Mori is a National Living Cultural Treasure in Japan. Her ceramics celebrate the centuries old traditions in ceramic arts. Although ceramic picnic baskets do not strictly speaking exist in the W ...
Read Article
