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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marcus Aurelius Root

Friday, August 15, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marcus Root was one of the first of a group of pioneer Daguerreotype photographers, among the first to open a portrait studio. He was an early advocate of photographers being considered artists. ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: George Bellows

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

George Bellows was a member of the group who called themselves The Eight, whom critics derogatorily dubbed “Ash Can School.” Those artists revolutionized subject matter in American paintin ...

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Curator's Corner

August Is National Dog Month: Kofun Period

Monday, August 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

I am not a “cat person” at all, but I absolutely love doggies of all sorts, big and small. I get my almost weekly dose of cuteness when I visit my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and get ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alvan Fisher

Friday, August 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

At the time Alvan Fisher began painting landscapes, the Hudson River School had not yet formed in New England. Fisher was among less than a handful of artists who were dedicated to landscape painting. ...

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Curator's Corner

National Lighthouse Day: Dong Kingman

Thursday, August 7, 2025 | Karl Cole

It was on this day in 1789 that Congress established funding in support of building of lighthouses, beacons, buoys and public piers. On August 7 of 1989, National Lighthouse Day was established by ...

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Curator's Corner

August Is Here: Willem de Kooning

Wednesday, August 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

In New England, it is generally said that summer is coming to an end in August. But I have a particular fondness for August because it’s when I discovered the house in Provincetown, Massachusett ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Jess (Collins)

Wednesday, August 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jess (Collins) is probably best known for his incredibly complex collages. He was a painter who initially worked as a chemist. He started doing collages in the early 1950s after seeing the works o ...

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Curator's Corner

National Oyster Day: Osias Beert, the Elder

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Art historians consider Osias Beert possibly the first significant Baroque Flemish still life painter. The still life medium was just catching on in popularity during his period of activity, ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Oqwa Pi

Friday, August 1, 2025 | Karl Cole

Oqwa Pi, whose name translates as Katsina Stick, was part of a generation of Native American artists who attended the Santa Fe Indian School, and took painting classes in The Studio. The school wa ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Erich Heckel

Thursday, July 31, 2025 | Karl Cole

Erich Heckel was a German Expressionist and a member of the important early artists’ group Die Brücke, a group that worked communally from 1905 to 1913. He is renowned for his woodcut print ...

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Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Kawakami Ryoka

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 | Karl Cole

Japanese artists have been proficient in water-soluble media for centuries. Early forms of water-soluble media included gofun—crushed white clam shells mixed with water and pigments—and di ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Betye Saar

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 | Karl Cole

The unique assemblages of Betye Saar helped elevate the medium to fine art status when she began producing them in the late 1960s. Her works explore her African American identity, her African heritage ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Abram Games

Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

A conservative dating of the so-called Golden Age of posters is the 1890s up to World War I (1914–1918). However, poster art continued to develop and flourish through the 1920s into World War II ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marcel Duchamp

Monday, July 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marcel Duchamp matured as an artist during one of the most exciting periods in Western art history. Paris was one of the undisputed leaders in avant-garde experiments in art which had repercussions th ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alexander Calder

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

Alexander is an artist who is renowned in art history for his pioneering exploration of movement in sculpture, and abstraction. He also became renowned for making jewelry which was a combination of mo ...

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Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Ann Hall

Monday, July 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

I have mentioned my trepidation about using watercolors before, and how I find it to be a very unforgiving medium. The fact that there have been and still are such brilliant watercolor artists justifi ...

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