Author Archives: Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD

Richard Hamilton, Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 1956, collage on paper, 10¼” x 9¾”, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Sammlung Zundel, Germany. Photo by Ian Burt under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

RIP Richard Hamilton

The British Pop artist Richard Hamilton passed away earlier this week. Some people think that Pop Art strictly was an American art movement, but it actually started in England with Richard Hamilton and his artist friends.  At the end of … Continue reading →

Exterior, Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1515, oil on panel, center 7’2½” x 6’4½”, wings, each7’2½” x 3’2”, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Hieronymus Bosch: Afternoon Delight

Like many titles given to works of art, The Garden of Earthly Delights does not describe the subject of this painting at all.  Artists normally did not give titles to their creations.  Other people suggested titles, sometimes centuries later, and … Continue reading →

Donald Judd, Ohne Titel (Stack), 1968-69. Photo by Oliver Kurmis under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Donald Judd: No Access

Many people find Minimalist art inaccessible, but that is precisely the point. You are not supposed to read anything into the work of art. Minimalist art literally and figuratively reflects out toward a viewer, activating the space around it, creating … Continue reading →

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503-1519, oil on poplar wood, 30” x 21, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Mona Lisa: The World’s Most Famous Portrait

This is arguably the most famous portrait in Western art; nevertheless, it remains shrouded in mystery, which may be the reason the image is so alluring.  Of course, it also is appealing because it is a magnificent and beautiful object.  … Continue reading →

Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 9 ½” x 13", Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image from Koiart71 (Flickr) available under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.

Dalí’s Camembert Watches

The Paranoid-Critical Method Many people are surprised to learn that this powerful work of art is somewhat small; it’s only a little larger than a sheet of notebook paper. It’s an intimate painting of an intimate subject. Dalí was a … Continue reading →

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 37 ⅞” x 63”, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: Art to Make Your Eyes Dilate

It appears that deep down, we humans are a sentimental lot. The Daily Mail Online published news of a study by Professor Semir Zeki, chair in neuroaesthetics at University College London, that indicates that looking at paintings by John Constable, … Continue reading →

© 2011 . All rights reserved.

Venus de Milo: That Girl

Everyone recognizes this lady who lost her arms. The heavy marble limbs probably fell off hundreds of years ago. She a big lady too, standing over six and a half feet tall. Because she was created in ancient Greece, probably … Continue reading →

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and the Dying – Typhoon Coming On (The Slave Ship), 1840, oil on canvas, 35 ¼” x 48”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Turner’s Slave Ship: The Wrath of God

The Romantic art movement in European art endured approximately sixty years, from the late eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century. This horrific image by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner betrays this artist’s engagement with the … Continue reading →

Chi Rho Iota page, The Book of Kells, c. 800, ink and pigments on vellum, 13” x 91/2”, Trinity College Library, Dublin. Attribution: By Meister des Book of Kells. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Book of Kells: The Mother of All Monograms

The ninth century in early medieval western Europe was an age of monasticism, and this is arguably the most beautiful product from the era.  It is the crowning achievement of Hiberno-Saxon art, which really means Irish-English art.  Another word for … Continue reading →