© 2019 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Robert Frank, the influential Swiss-American photographer died yesterday at the age of 94. He was best known for his groundbreaking book, The Americans, which documented the people he met on his cross-country road trips in the mid-1950s. In black and white, … Continue reading
Robert Therrien, Untitled (Folding Chairs and Table), 2008, Paint and metal, Table: 96” x 120” x 120”, Chairs: 104” x 64” x 72”, Image via Artsy.com.
The American artist Robert Therrien died earlier this week. He was 71 years old. Therrien is best known for his amusing sculptures of functional, mass-produced objects from everyday life that are enlarged to a scale that fills a room. Surely, … Continue reading
Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
By now, you probably have heard of the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the Guggenheim in New York. This is a reminder that the show closes this month on April 23rd. It is a remarkable exhibition that … Continue reading
Charles White, Awaken from the Unknowing, 1961, Charcoal and Wolff crayon on paperboard, Private Collection, Photo via the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
The retrospective exhibition of over 100 prints, drawings, and paintings by the artist Charles White (1918-1979) has moved from MoMA to LACMA, where it will be on view through June 9, 2019. The artist was a superb draftsman who altered … Continue reading
Graciela Iturbide, Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora, México (Angel Woman, Sonora Desert, Mexico), 1979, Photograph from The New York Times.
From January 19th– May 12ththe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will have Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico on view. Often compared to the literary style of Magic Realism epitomized in the work of Gabriel García Márquez, Iturbide’s work combines realism and fantasy. … Continue reading
Mark Bradford, Constitution IV, 2013, Mixed Media on Canvas, 132
Mark Bradford employs a décollage technique using layers of found printed materials to build up the surfaces of his canvases before manipulating them by alternately sanding them and building them back up again with more paper. The texts or images … Continue reading
Grave Stele of Hegeso, c. 410 B.C.E., marble and paint, from the Dipylon Cemetary, Athens, 5' 2
A stele is a tall slab made of wood or stone that typically is used as a grave marker. Sometimes people in ancient civilizations used stele as a boundary marker to ward off evil. Steles often were sculpted with images … Continue reading
Charles Sheeler, Upper Deck, 1929, oil on canvas, 28 ¾” x 21 ¾”, Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, currently on view in the Cult of the Machine exhibition.
This is the last week that the exhibition Cult of the Machine will be on view at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. If you can’t see it there, you will be able to catch it at the Dallas Museum … Continue reading
David Douglas Duncan, Cover photograph for This is War!, 1951
Earlier this month, David Douglas Duncan, one of the most influential photographers of the 20thcentury, passed away at the age of 102. His career as a photojournalist began auspiciously when he was a college student and he photographed a hotel … Continue reading
Gerrit Dou, The Young Mother, 1658, oil on panel, 28.9” x 21.8”, Mauritshuis, The Hague, Image in the Public Domain via Wikimedia.
During the Dutch Golden Age, artists specialized in different subjects in order to compete in the new art market. Early in the 17th century, artists developed specializations within their specialization to carve out a market niche for themselves. Within the … Continue reading
Eva Hesse, Sans II, 1968, fiberglass and polyester resin, 38
Eva Hesse was an artist at the center of the Post-Minimalist art movement. There are many “Post-” art movements in the history of art, which simply is a way of describing art that expands upon some of the achievements of … Continue reading
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton), 1836, Oil on canvas, 51½
On January 29th, Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition features the Hudson River School founder’s masterpieces The Oxbow and The Course of the Empire series as points of departure to examine … Continue reading