Furniture conforming to...? Jere Osgood
Traditionally, furniture was designed to conform to the human body and what was being worn at the time. That’s why we see low side chairs with no arms during the mid-1800s when women were wearin ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Lacquer: Japanese Negoro Ware
The art of lacquer has long fascinated me. When I was in an Asian Art seminar in college (decades ago), I learned that ancient Chinese bodies coated in lacquer still had supple skin. Now that’s ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Windsor Connection
My nephew just repainted our kitchen table and chairs. It occurred to me that the chairs are modern day versions of the Windsor chair. Our chairs even have the elegant h-stretcher joining the legs, an ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Brueghel (Bruegel) Family
Having ancestry in northern Europe (Switzerland), I naturally gravitated toward Northern Renaissance art in college. I’m particularly fond of Flemish artists, because they reflect a similar unva ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
A Unique Design: Maria Benktzon
In the mid-1900s, Scandinavian artists emerged at the forefront of modernism in all facets of design: architecture, furniture, and the art of household objects. Among them were many women who came up ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
You Think You Know Ancient Egypt?
At first glance this small sculpture would lead the viewer to believe that it was firmly within the realm of ancient Egyptian art. It actually belongs to a culture that bordered dynastic Egypt, and tw ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
National Jewish American Heritage Month: Helen Frankenthaler
As an art historian who grew up in the age of blossoming feminist art movements, one of my major disappointments has always been the significant women artists of previous movements who were not given ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
The Simplified Landscape: Warren Rohrer
The genre of the simplified (abstracted) landscape has been around a loooonnnnnng time. In particular, I think of the dreamy, suggestive landscapes of Chinese artists from as early as the Song dynasty ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
My Mask Mania: Nuna Culture
Thanks to Steven Tatum at Virginia Tech for educating me about African masks, an art form I’ve long been fascinated by. The variety of forms and uses boggles my Western European accustomed mind! ...
Read More
Curator's Corner
Forgotten Art History: Thomas Gross, Jr.
Like women artists, African American artists have been neglected in the major art history survey texts, especially when it comes to pre-emancipation. I am always delighted to have an epiphany about an ...
Read More