Shrine of Hazrat Ali, also know as the Blue Mosque, 15th century, Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan. Photo by Michal Hvorecky, Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons.
Horror vacui (noun) Fear or dislike of empty space in the visual arts. Many accuse artists from the Ancient Egyptian era to Jackson Pollock of suffering from horror vacui. The term frequently is used to describe Islamic art in which … Continue reading
© 2011 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Albrecht Dürer fancied himself a great painter before anything else; however, it was his printmaking that became his major contribution to the history of art. What he was able to accomplish using only black and white is astonishing, … Continue reading
© 2011 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Currently on view at the Blanton Museum of Art are stunning works of art by the contemporary artist, El Anatsui. Lisa Binder from The Museum of African Art in New York City curated the exhibition entitled, El Anatsui: When I … 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
© 2011 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Primitivism (noun) The use of non-western art styles, such as African Art, in an effort to be progressive and new. Western artists believed that non-western art conveyed fundamental truths. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German Expressionist, was drawn to primitivism for … 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
Claude Monet, London, Houses of Parliament, 1904, oil on canvas, 32.1” x 36.4”, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Avant-garde (noun) A military term meaning, “advance force,” that was adopted by French artists and critics in the nineteenth century to describe innovative art. The Impressionists were the first avant-garde artists. Their colorful and sketchy paintings were radically new.
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
Part of the Isaiah Scroll, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Uploaded by Daniel Baranek, via Wikimedia Commons.
Even though this is more of historical rather than art historical interest, it certainly is worth mentioning here. Google has put the Dead Sea Scrolls online for everyone to view. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest copies of the … 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
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Conversion of Saint Paul, c. 1601, oil on canvas, 7’6” x 5’7”, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Chiaroscuro (noun) Italian word that refers to the shading (or modeling) in a work of art. Caravaggio is well known for his highly developed chiaroscuro. Sally Coleman | The Art Minute
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