The Sutton Hoo Burial Ship: Major Bling to Take to the Afterworld

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 Lin’s Simple Eloquence

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’s Trouble in Paradise

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 →

Just a Second: Pictorialist Photography

Gertrude Käsebier, Blessed Art Thou among Women, 1899, platinum print, 9/1/16

Pictorialist Photography (noun) Pictorialist Photography was an international photography movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in which artists manipulated their photographs so that they would appear to be more creative and therefore comparable to other fine arts, … Continue reading →

Albert Bierstadt: From Sea to Shining Sea

Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 1863, oil on canvas, 73.5" x 120.7", The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Albert Bierstadt, perhaps the most successful of the Hudson River School artists, painted very large canvases with majestic scenes of the American West that were hugely popular in New York and London.  James McHenry, an American railway entrepreneur living in … Continue reading →

In Their Own Words: Georges Braque

Georges Braque, Still Life with Violin, 1913, oil on canvas and paper, 36 1/2" x 26", Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, Photo by C Leavitt, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.

“The function of art is to disturb.  Science reassures.” Georges Braque

Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”: On Sale Now!

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, crayon and tempera on cardboard, 35⅞” x 29”, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Public Domain via Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, one of four versions of Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream will be for sale at the Impressionist and Modern Art auction at Sotheby’s in New York.  If you’re interested, it will run you about $80 million. No image of … Continue reading →

Just a Second: Maestà

Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311, tempera on wood, 214 x 412 cm, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Maestà (noun) Italian for “majesty,” a maestà is an image type that depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned with angels surrounding them. Perhaps the best known maestà is by Duccio, who painted the subject for the Siena Cathedral.  Duccio’s rendition of … Continue reading →

Damien Hirst and Business Art

Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007, platinum, diamonds and human teeth, White Cube Gallery, London, Photo by Secretly Ironic, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License.

On March 19th, Blake Gopnik, a reporter for Newsweek Magazine, wrote an article about Damien Hirst, claiming that the artist is the most natural heir to Andy Warhol and “business art.”  Indeed, the significance of Hirst’s work is lost if … Continue reading →

In Their Own Words: Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition No. 4, 1911, oil on canvas, 62 ⅞

 “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the piano with many strings.  The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual … Continue reading →