"Anonymous" Artists: Olga "Geneva" Reed
While visiting Cape Cod last weekend, I painted with my friend Erika and produced two little landscapes in acrylic. When I got home I thought, “Geez, where am I going to put these?” M ...
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Curator's Corner
Incan Painting of the Colonial Period: School of Cuzco
Last Saturday night, I started a new landscape painting by doing a sketch in linseed oil-thinned oil paint. You’ve read about my art historian geekhood on this blog, but now you’ll hear ab ...
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Curator's Corner
Mayan Ceramics
I find it very interesting (in my geeky, art historian way) to contrast the art of cultures from all over the non-Western world and compare them to the “epitome” of aesthetics in the West, ...
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Curator's Corner
Poetry as Visual Art: Iko no Taiga
I’ve written before in this blog about my fascination with LINE, one of the Elements of Art. I’ve pointed out that when it comes to calligraphy, line is not only defining the shapes of a w ...
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Curator's Corner
4th of July: Kyra Markham
What better way to celebrate the 4th of July (I know I’m late) than by presenting a classic work of American realism? I’ve always had a soft spot for the realism that dominated art during ...
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Curator's Corner
Modern Furniture Design: Vico Magistretti
When I was in graduate school, I was extremely fortunate to be a TA (teaching assistant) to the Furniture art historian. What a learning experience that was! As an art history major, I tended to think ...
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Curator's Corner
Native American Quillwork: Micmac Culture
When I was in grade school, one of our art projects was to collect used wooden matches and then create geometric patterns with them, gluing them side by side on cardboard. It did create an interesting ...
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Curator's Corner
Postcards and Modernization in Japan
When we in the West think of a “postcard,” we usually think of a note from Aunt Suzie on her vacation in Atlantic City or a card with a picture of a church my brother visited while going a ...
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Curator's Corner
Ancient Roman Realism
While when we think of the art of ancient Rome we tend to connect it to the influence of Greek art, there was a strong naturalistic trend in Roman art that would have appalled Greek artists. ...
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Curator's Corner
What Is Realism? Jan van Eyck and Henry O. Tanner
American art has always been characterized by a strong reverence for realism, from the early colonial portraits by artists such as John Singleton Copley, through the Hudson River School, and into the ...
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