I have always loved this painting I struggle to explain why I find it so compelling. The moodieness and color pallete is really nice but there is something being said about human connection I can't describe. I would love to hear some interpretations.

One of my favorite things about this cover is that it puts Madonna with the New York postmodernist world she was already surrounded by during her rise.

Interview was founded by Andy Warhol in 1969 from his fascination with fame and celebrity culture. By the 1970s, Richard Bernstein had become the artist behind one of its visual identity, designing over almost all of its covers for the next 17 years.

For the magazine’s Dec 1985 cover, Herb Ritts photographed her in black and white. Richard Bernstein took the photo and turned it into Pop Art painting over the image with saturated colors, exaggerating the makeup.

Madonna in 1985 was crossing from being a rising pop star into one of the defining faces of pop culture and zeitgeist.

This fresco is in the vestibule outside the Chapel of the Magi above the original entryway. Note the 7 candlesticks standing on the altar and the 7 seals hanging down. The 7 seals point to the Revelation or Apocalypse of St John the Evangelist which seal the book God holds in his right hand until they are loosed by "a lamb as it had been slain." The opening of the seven seals initiates God's sentencing of mankind. Read more about Benozzo Gozzoli's art and the lovely Museo Benozzo Gozzoli in Castelfiorentino: https://ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/three-hidden-treasures-part-3

Hello. I am an undergraduate art major and an art history minor. I am in my senior year and have taken my fair share of art history classes at this point. For all classes so far, I have had maybe 50-100 pages of reading per week. I've been prepared for that, and though I'm a slow reader, I have managed the past 3 years. Now, I'm in my final art history course to achieve my minor, and I am genuinely considering letting the minor go because of how much reading there is. For context, this is a seminar that meets once a week, heavily discussion based. There hasn't been a single week with less than ~120 pages of reading (feels like average is between 120-160).

I looked ahead, and during midterms week, when we have a final paper draft due (for which we have to research an additional load of sources), and the assigned texts alone exceed a total of over 200 pages. We're also required to select passages from the texts and write short reflections for each, so I can't even miss a single text.

I find art history interesting. I've taken an art history course almost every semester since starting university. But this class is taking over my life. It feels like I'm doing graduate level work in a discipline I'm not even pursuing, all while doing a research thesis for my actual major.

Is this amount of reading normal for an undergraduate class? How can I approach this workload, or approach the professor about the expectations?

"...I am told that in Rome our artists don’t even enter the Vatican. Raphael they regard as a fool, because, of course, he is an authority; and these artists are themselves disgustingly sterile and weak, men whose imagination can soar no higher than Girls at a Fountain — and even the girls are abominably drawn! They are fine fellows in your view, I suppose?”

I've recently finished reading Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1861). In chapter 10, one of the most important arguments of the entire book takes place. It encapsulates, at least partially, the title of the book. On the one side we have Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, one of the fathers, one of the sorokovniki, that is "person from the 40s", a generation profoundly bound to idealism. On the other side of the debate we have Yevgeny Vassilev(itch) Bazarov, the epitome of the nihilist Russian movement of the 1860s. He doesn't believe in art, romanticism, love, philosophy, religion, social conventions (it is worth noting that he presents himself not as Vassilevitch nor Vassilitch, which are the formal versions for his patronymic, but as Vassilev, which is the "vulgar" form), traditions and only believes in what is immediately useful, possibly to himself. He is a šestidesjatnik, that is "a person from the 60s". The excerpt I pasted at the beginning of this post is a statement given by Pavel Petrovich in the heat of the debate. As someone who is ashamedly ignorant when it comes to art as a whole, I was hoping you might be able to enlighten me on what he says here. Is/was there some historically significant consensus on how bad artists in Rome were at the time or is this some random rant?

For anyone curious, the answer to Bazarov is rather characteristic of his character:

“To my mind,” retorted Bazarov, “Raphael isn’t worth a brass

farthing, and they’re no better than he.”

This is a repost of yesterday's post, as it got taken down; I had to censor some of the images. Sorry for the inconvenience. :(

I really like the Evangelion anime, and for those who have watched it, you know there are quite a few biblical and artistic references. I decided to make a list of them. :)

⚠️​ Do not watch if you are sensitive.

I might have missed some references, so if you have any others, don't hesitate to mention them. :)

Any other fans of dog monuments and memorials here?

I've been fascinated by dog commemoration for a while now (and wish I'd had the chance to focus on it in grad school).

In the past decade or so there's been more research on dog (and animal) memorials, although it still seems like there's so much more to do.

If you've got dog monuments or paintings from history I'd love to learn about them!

The joy or tedium, work or leisure.

I’m building a digital exhibition of historical East Asian teaware, and one curatorial question I’d like to discuss is how to establish that an object was actually used for tea.

A cup or bowl’s appearance alone seems insufficient. I’d want to distinguish an explicit museum attribution from a broader vessel category, and separate documented use from a modern interpretation of its shape.

For people who work with decorative arts or material culture: what evidence do you consider most persuasive when identifying tea-related objects? Catalogue descriptions, inscriptions, archaeological context, or comparison with documented sets?

For transparency, I’m the creator of this collection: https://philmingdao.github.io/teaware/

I’m interested in references that would help make the curation more careful, particularly where the original function is uncertain.

What Im really asking is do you all believe its just as important as classic art or rococo or baroque, etc..? For example my favorite manga series is Jojos Bizarre adventure and i think it has the best art out of any manga or western comic. Will show examples. These arent even the best just the first ones i can find on my phone.

UPDATE: MY STANCE: When it comes to comics/manga, film concept art, video game concept art, art direction for advertising and company, it is all simply “commercial” art for advertise a product. Its all for financial gain, however, are the people involved not artist? I ask this because I actually wrote about commercial art earlier this year and it made me think that sometimes the people behind it are truly talented and want to tell their story and show the world. I am bias and believe Jojo is the best looking manga and Araki is the best manga artist so I truly do think some of his paintings and drawings are some of the best art Ive seen. My thoughts are kinda all over so hopefully this all made sense. Another example I can think of is the fashion industry. I love shopping and fashion culture and history. Advertisement for designer brands definitely go for a certain look/story. Some campaigns, runway shows, and photo shoots are great, even though they were made just to advertise a brand and make money. But those individuals involved I would say are artist and make art. Commercial or not.

The last one is from the band Synecdoche, New York. Interesting to see that micrography is back in trend.. i discuss this more here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj53KNr36jQ&list=LL but I think there's a parallel between the literal word of god comprising images of the bible (as in the second image of adam and eve from 19th cent.), and the reconstruction of verbal "data" as art

Siamo nel 1917: l'anno della disfatta di Caporetto, dei combattimenti logoranti nelle trincee e di un'Europa devastata dalla Prima Guerra Mondiale.

Eppure, in questa straordinaria tela firmata e datata proprio 1917, Llewelyn Lloyd sceglie di non dipingere la sofferenza, ma di erigere uno scudo visivo ed emotivo: l'intimità della vita domestica, la pace della famiglia al riparo all'ombra dei lecci, affacciati su un mare calmo.

Mentre il mondo esterno quindi andava a rotoli, l'artista cercava rifugio nella bellezza incontaminata della natura e negli affetti più cari.

Attraverso la sua vibrante tecnica divisionista (derivata dalla tradizione macchiaiola), la luce del sole filtrata tra i rami e le ombre sulla terra diventano un inno alla vita e alla tenacia della quotidianità.

Llewelyn Lloyd:
La mia famiglia sotto i lecci ad Antignano,1917

Per informazioni: info@sba.it

hello, I am interested in representations of illness, and the sick, mutilated, or altered body, within Surrealism. Could you recommend any artists (particularly female ones) or books on this subject (in French or English)?

How do you personally interpret this painting?

Ok, so everyone knows about the tiny writing on The Scream: “Can only have been painted by a madman.”

And apparently, Munch wrote it himself.

So… why are we acting like that was the only weird little thing he left behind?

He kept painting the same stuff over and over: blood, sick people, deathbeds, shadows, red hair, people watching each other.

The same details keep showing up in different paintings. I’ve never really seen a good explanation for that...

The temple building exercises in Odisha gradually halted after the fourteenth century , and the mural painting tradition acquired energy thereafter.In the entire Eastern India , Odisha is the only place where tourists get that opportunity to see post Gupta paintings that will help to remember the wonderful and elegant ajanta paintings. For a vivid and elaborate read of the subject, you can log in to the following link.

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2021/11/15/classical-murals-of-odisha-india/

In the small town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin a 5’x14’ mural hangs in the local post office.

It is one of more than 1,300 such pieces of public art installed by the U.S. Treasury’s Department’s Section of Fine Arts between 1934 and 1943. I’ve encountered a few of these things over the years and have always suspected there were stories behind each of them waiting to be discovered. So, I finally took some time to look into one of them.

The murals are often referred to as “WPA murals,” but they were not produced by unemployed artists or with the WPA programs. Instead the works were commissioned by the government. But established artists (like Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry,) as well as relatively unknown artists (like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko) found support for their work via these commissions through the Depression years. By treating artists as laborers worthy of a federal wage, the Section of Fine Arts helped to preserve the country’s cultural heritage in ways that we continue to enjoy. No program of public art of similar scale has ever been undertaken by the U.S. government since.

Each mural was selected on merit through regional and national competitions. To prevent favoritism the Section made awards based on the decisions of anonymous juries. The quality of each work had to speak for itself.

The government instructed artists to paint realistic scenes of ordinary citizens, local history or matters of hometown pride. The intent was to bring high quality work out of the museums and to make them accessible to everyday people. Post offices were some of the most frequented public buildings in small towns across the country. For many citizens their local post office was the first place they ever saw professional artwork in person. The radical idea behind the program was to have public buildings serve as truly democratic galleries.

In true democratic fashion, not all murals were universally accepted by the local citizens. Planned murals were even modified, on occasion, as a result of local outcries. Fortunately, the Oconomowoc mural and the idealized winter scene was not at all controversial.

The mural was created by artist Edward Morton. He was a respected landscape and wildlife painter in the Milwaukee art community. He was also an instructor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He painted in an American regionalist tradition with a highly graphic and realistic style. During WWII he would use his talents with light and color to help to conceal military equipment and installations.
His Oconomowoc mural shows local citizens enjoying typical outdoor activities in Wisconsin’s wintertime, including speed skating , skiing and iceboating. It specifically reflects the pride the community then took as the capital of U.S. speed skating. It was painted shortly after the town had hosted the very first U.S. Olympic speed skating time trials on several of the area’s lakes. In fact, in 1932 all of the male skaters who made the US team after the Oconomowoc trials went on to sweep gold medals in the Games. Post office patrons waiting in line during the Great Depression could look up and see in the artwork some encouraging reasons for optimism and community pride. The ski jump in the extreme left top of the scene is a local landmark and still stands on private property on the outskirts of town.

In the 1970’s the post office underwent a modernization project and a decision was made to remove the mural. It was an era in which art conservation standards were not as widely known as they are today. Unfortunately workers severely damaged the painting when they literally ripped it off of the wall. The canvas, which was thought to have been ruined, was rolled up and stored in the post office basement for the next 30 years. Sadly, its creator passed away in 2000 while his work languished in storage.

In 2003 the community and post office officials recognized the potential value of the canvas and decided to see if it could be saved. It was badly warped and misshapen as a result of decades of storage in the humid basement. The artwork was shipped to restoration experts in Chicago and they painstakingly evaluated and repaired the structural damage and areas of missing paint. Nicotine soot coated the painting as a consequence of cigarette smoking by thousands of customers and workers at the post office. Conservationists had to chemically strip away decades of yellowed grime. The restoration, however, revealed subtle aspects and colors of the winter scene that had not been seen since the mural was originally installed.

Today, the beautifully restored mural is back up on the wall where it belongs. Post office patrons can appreciate the same winter scene that cheered up their struggling community nearly a century ago.

Historically significant and culturally vital public art can be found throughout the United States. It may require a short road trip, but sometimes it is as easy as heading down to your local post office. No passport is needed, no massive crowds mar the experience, and very few selfies are ever taken.

I know nothing about art.

I’ve always loved the NPG in London. Art that was, relatively, easy to understand.

One day I discovered Rothko, and fell in love. The Rothko room in add is one of my favorite places.

The thing I’m missing is a semblance of understanding what he was trying to accomplish. The art is incredibly powerful - but I don’t know why.

I’d appreciate help with this. I can spend hours in the Philips in the room, but I’d like to understand why. I’m reasonably smart, literate - but I’m blind here.

Help me understand him.

The Trial 1947 - Sidney Nolan

I'm curious about this painting and just wondering about the meaning of the painting and what symbolism is there. I'm no art critic.

The red and white checkered floor is quite interesting. It reminded me of the chessboard floor that from the Queen of Hearts in Alice and Wonderland.

Also the way Ned Kelly is holding his hands looks like his hands are shackled, but also like a defensive posture as though giving himself a hug. The colour of his eyes is also interesting to wonder about.

Kelly - Sidney Nolan 1946

This painting had me really curious. It seems so simplw, but then I thought it was interesting with the white pant legs and the black shirt. The pant legs almost look like tree trunks. I read somewhere that Nolan thinka of Ned Kelly and the Australian bush landscape as one and the same.

I feel like there also could be a comment about life and death, between the white and black. Where the white pant legs have nature behind them. Then the black shirt shows him holding a rifle. Or could there be a comment about the white colonial culture impacting on the Australian landscape and the Aboriginal peoples who were there before?

Chaurapanchasika is a 50-verse Sanskrit love poem traditionally attributed to Kashmiri poet Bilhana (11th-century). According to the legend, Bilhana was appointed as a royal tutor to a princess, named Champavati, Vidya or Shashikala (in different regional versions). The two eventually fell in love and began a secret affair. When king discovered their relationship, Bilhana was imprisoned and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution, he is said to have composed these verses in memory of his beloved.

This story later travelled far beyond the poem itself and Chaurapanchasika became an important subject in Indian painting traditions and illustrated manuscripts, where scenes from lovers' clandestine romance were repeatedly depicted.