Obelisk in St. Peter's Square, Rome, Photo by Danbu14, Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Obelisk (noun) A four-sided monument with a pyramid-shaped, pointed top that originated in ancient Egypt. The shape is thought to be inspired by the rays of the sun. The obelisk that today stands in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in … Continue reading
Gerhard Richter, Christa and Wolfi, 1964, oil on canvas, 59 x 51 1/4 in., Art Institute of Chicago, Photo by Kent Baldner via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
“When I paint from a photograph, conscious thinking is eliminated. I don’t know what I am doing. My work is far closer to the Informel than to any kind of ‘realism’. The photograph has an abstraction of its own, which … Continue reading
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Krater (noun) An ancient Greek vessel in which wine and water were mixed. Kraters come in different shapes. A calyx krater has a bell shape with handles near the base and a volute krater has handles shaped like scrolls.
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Andy Warhol Pop Artist Andrej Varhola, Jr. was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Andrej Varhola, a coal mine worker, and Júlia Zavacká, both of whom were immigrants from Slovakia. Andy Warhol died in New York City on February 22, 1987. … Continue reading
Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation, c. 1472, oil on panel, 38.6
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Leonardo da Vinci
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Ambulatory (noun) A place for walking, usually an aisle in a church around the apse. In Santa Costanza in Rome, the mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Constantine’s daughter Constantina, the ambulatory is circular and goes around a space where the … Continue reading
Edgar Degas, Concert Singer with Glove, c. 1878, pastel on canvas, 34 3/16 x 29 7/16 x 3 3/4 in., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, Photo in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Edgar Degas French Impressionist Born July 19, 1834 in Paris, France to Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, and Augustin De Gas, a banker.
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
“I think we were all more interested in being honest than in being modern.” Gabriele Münter, about the members of The Blue Rider
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Rayograph (noun) A type of photograph created by the artist Man Ray for which a camera was not used; rather, various everyday objects were placed on photographic paper and the paper was exposed to light. Man Ray’s “rayographs,” with their … Continue reading
Hans Holbein the Younger, Anne of Cleaves, c. 1539, oil on parchment mounted on canvas, 25.6" x 18.9", Louvre Museum, Photo in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
English King Henry VIII to Thomas Cromwell, regarding the reason he ended his fourth marriage to Anne of Cleaves from Flanders with an annulment: “You have sent me a Flanders mare!”
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
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