Philip Johnson and Mark Rothko, The Rothko Chapel, 1971, Houston, TX, Photo by Darren Milligan via Flickr, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
If you find yourself in Houston, TX, where there is a lot of great art to see, consider making the time to visit the Rothko Chapel. The famous modern architect Philip Johnson designed the octagonal building, but the building is … Continue reading
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad, 2254-2218 B.C.E., pink limestone, Musee du Louvre, Paris, Photo by Profzucker via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
Stele (noun) An upright stone slab decorated with sculpture or writing. The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad shows the Mesopotamian King Naram-Sim’s victory over the Lullubi people in the Zagros Mountains in the 12th century B.C.E. In the stele, Naram-Sim is … Continue reading
John Singer Sargent, Madame X, 1883-1884, oil on canvas, 82.1” x 43.3”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Madame X is the painting that ultimately ruined John Singer Sargent’s reputation in the Parisian art society. It is a portrait of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, an American-born expatriate who was well known for her style and beauty. Sargent emphasized … Continue reading
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Dustheads, 1982, acrylic, oilstick, spray enamel and metallic paint on canvas, 72” x 84”, Photo by glouglou2fois via Flickr, Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
On May 15th, Christie’s held the biggest art auction in history at which collectors spent a record-breaking $495 million for canvases by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, and Roy Lichtenstein among others. One of the snarky writers at Gawker.com, Maggie Lange, … Continue reading
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
This large and impressive painting by Gerard David stops nearly all visitors to the Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Belgium in their tracks. Viewers look upon the two large panels with a mixture of abhorrence and fascination while they wonder what is … Continue reading
Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, 1872, oil on canvas, 22" x 18.1", Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
“It is important to express oneself… provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.” Berthe Morisot Happy Mother’s Day from The Art Minute.
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 33 ⅛” x 60”, Art Institute of Chicago, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The American artist Edward Hopper had the uncanny ability to make his brightly lit spaces rather cool. It suited the desolate mood of his realist images of the urban environment in the 20th century. The fluorescent lighting in this painting … Continue reading
Anton Stankowski, book jacket design, 1963, photo by Alki1 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.
Depth of Field (noun) The distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a picture. The German photographer Anton Stankowski enjoyed using the depth of field creatively to compose engaging photographs.
Interior of San Vitale, 526-547 CE, Ravenna, Italy, Photo by sjmcdonoughvia Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 ShareAlike License. 2
San Vitale is one of the first examples of Byzantine art and architecture in Western civilization. In the 6th century, under the reign of Justinian, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) became the political and religious center of the Christian Byzantine Empire and … Continue reading
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Shuttlecock, 1994, aluminum and fiber-reinforced plastic; painted with polyurethane enamel, 17 ft. 11 in. high x 15 ft. 1 in. crown diameter and 4 ft. nose cone diameter, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Photo by April Rinne via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
“I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.” Claes Oldenburg
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
It looks like this refined watercolor of a clump of turf was done on the spot – the artist, German Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer, sitting outside in a meadow; however, Dürer painted it in his studio probably after arranging the … Continue reading
Pablo Picasso, The Guitarist, 1910, oil on canvas, 39.4” x 28.7”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Photo by teadrinker via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 License. Generic
By now you may have heard that cosmetics tycoon Leonard A. Lauder has promised the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York his large collection of Cubist art valued at over $1 billion. This is an incredibly generous donation that … Continue reading