Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909, bronze, 16 ¼” x 9 ¾” 10 ½”, Museum of Modern Art, New York, photo by opacity via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
This is a sculpture of Picasso’s girlfriend from 1904 through 1911, Fernande Olivier, a complicated woman who entered into a tempestuous seven-year relationship with the womanizing Picasso. Picasso created dozens of portraits of Fernande during their time together. Their relationship … Continue reading
Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, High Chest of Drawers, 1765-1775, Mahogany, yellow poplar, white cedar, yellow pine, and brass, 8’ ¾” x 46½’ x 25¾”, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Photo by mharrsch via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
American furniture from the colonial era really is beautiful and the story of these pieces reveals key moments from American history. The high chest of drawers in the background of this photograph is of the American Rococo style, which is … Continue reading
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, oil on beaver board, 30.7" x 25.7", The Art Institute of Chicago, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Everyone knows this painting. Grant Wood, one of the leading painters from the Regionalist movement that presented the American way of life in their art, created this somewhat cynical portrait using a realistic style of painting. The image represents a … Continue reading
Colossal Head #1 from San Lorenzo, c. 900 BCE, basalt, 9’3” x 6’9”, Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, Veracruz, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The civilization that created these colossal sculptures of heads and others like it, the Olmec Civilization, predates the Maya and Aztec civilizations in Mesoamerica. On the average, these huge heads carved from large boulders are nearly eight feet tall. Very … Continue reading
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, c. 1601, oil on canvas, 7’6” x 5’7”, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Two art historians recently announced that they discovered about 100 paintings and drawings by Caravaggio. Surely, scholars will debate the authenticity of these works of art in the coming months. If they are originals, this is quite a coup. So, … Continue reading
© 2012 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Jasper Johns’ paintings made reference to popular or commercially produced imagery and then pulled it into the realm of high art. Johns created an American flag using an expressionistic application of paint, which signified high art in the 1950’s when Abstract … Continue reading
Gerhard Richter, Two Candles, 1982, oil on canvas, 47¼” x 39½”, Art Institute of Chicago, photo by rob golkosky, Creative Commons Attribution License via Flickr.
By many standards, Gerhard Richter is the most successful living painter in the world. Ironically, he achieved that status by questioning the value of painting itself. Many postmodern artists acknowledge the demise of innovation in certain media, especially in painting. … Continue reading
Vincent van Gogh, Sower at Sunset, 1888, oil on canvas, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Jean-François Millet’s The Sower was Van Gogh’s favorite painting. He loved the way the French artist from the Barbizon School painted the peasant in such a way that he is ennobled, yet the scene is unemotional; his face is largely concealed. Millet presented the laborer as … Continue reading
Peter Paul Rubens, Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, c. 1617, oil on canvas, 88.2” x 83.1”, Alta Pinakothek, Munich, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, the international gentleman from Antwerp, in many ways define the Baroque style. They are dynamic in composition and subject matter. The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus has this classic combination. It depicts a story … Continue reading
Purse Lid from the Sutton Hoo Burial Ship, c. 700, gold, enamel, garnets, The British Museum, London, Photo by profzucker, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.
In an eighty-six foot ship, an Anglo-Saxon tribe from the seventh century buried their king with a plethora of treasures that he could use as he navigated the afterworld. During this period, as the Byzantine Empire was thriving in the … Continue reading
Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982, black granite, 500’ long, The Mall in Washington, D. C., Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
There are many strong and effective memorials in the history of art, but none surpass the eloquence and emotional power of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Lin was an undergraduate student at Yale University when she decided … Continue reading
Paul Gauguin, The Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao Tupapau), 1892, oil on canvas, 28½” x 36½”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Paul Gauguin’s brightly colored paintings of the tropics represent a paradise that dis not necessarily exist. A leader of the Synthetist movement in painting in which artists used colors freely to express their personal feelings about a subject, Gauguin represented … Continue reading