John Singleton Copley, Boy with a Squirrel, 1765, oil on canvas, 30¼” x 25”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Back in the Colonial era in America, people were suspicious of art. Art was aristocratic and European. The colonies most definitely were not. It was not easy for artists like John Singleton Copley to find training or work. Typically for … Continue reading
Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, 1645-1652, marble, life-size, Coronaro Cahpel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. Photo from Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
This is a little awkward. This spiritual event looks like something altogether different.
West portal, tympanum with Last Judgment by Gislebertus, Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, c. 1120-1135, Atun France. Photo by Henri Moreau, Creative Commons license, via Wikimedia Commons.
This is not a threat. This is a promise. The reason the photograph above of this tympanum over a portal (sculpture in the space over the doorway) is so good is because it shows how ominous this sculpture appears to … Continue reading
Walton Ford, Nila, 1999-2000, watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 144” x 216”, Photo by La Petite Claudine (Flickr) under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Walton Ford’s watercolors are magnificent. The contemporary artist paints the natural world on an enormous scale. This watercolor of an elephant, when all twenty-two panels are placed together, is life-size. The painting is meticulous. The detail is exacting. It is … Continue reading
Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, September 1888, oil on canvas, 28½” x 36⅓”, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
You are privy to the point of view of a very sick man. The Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh suffered terribly from many diseases including syphilis, epilepsy, and alcoholism. He also was tremendously anxious and depressed, which is why he … Continue reading
Queen Nefertiti, c. 1348-1336/5 BCE, Limestone, 19” high, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches Museum. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
This sculpture of Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt is arresting because she is beautiful in the twenty-first-century sense of the word. She easily could be on the cover of Vogue. Her set jaw and her large almond-shaped eyes that gaze … Continue reading
Diego Velázquez, The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas), 1656, oil on canvas, 10’5” x 9’, Museo del Prado, Madrid, via Wikimedia Commons
This huge portrait of Princess Margarita, daughter of Philip IV, King of Spain, is a virtuoso performance in paint. With his flickering brushwork, Diego Velázquez created a scene filled with glowing light and brilliant textures. The painting is as complex as … Continue reading
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, oil on canvas, 20”x 20”, Collection of Kunsthaus Zurich, Photo by William Cromar under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Following the devastation of the First World War, Dutch artists Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg founded de Stijl (The Style), a utopian art movement intended to create works of art that communicated spiritual harmony. Both artists were Theosophists and … Continue reading
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, California, 1936, gelatin silver print, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Social documentary photographers used their pictures to document serious problems in society and generate change. Their intentions were admirable, the change they achieved was vital, but their methods were not always completely honest. The power of most photographs lies in … Continue reading
Anonymous Artist, The Emperor Hadrian, c. 127, marble, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
The Roman emperors surely did not invent political propaganda, but they were experts at it. The Emperor Hadrian paid for and may have designed The Pantheon which is a religious temple dedicated to all of the Roman Gods and members … 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.
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.
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