Being born and raised in Chicago (but living in New England the last 15 years), my mind often wanders back to the many wonderful walks I took while living in the city. As an art historian, I was fasci ...
Read MoreI’ve tried lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, and etching (on a plastic plate, yuck!), but have never succeeded as a printmaker. I would gladly do color lithography if I could have a press in m ...
Read MoreLet’s celebrate the official start of autumn with a beautiful little landscape by one of my favorite German expressionists: Emil Nolde. German expressionist landscapes were a big influence on my ...
Read MoreA friend of mine just framed a painting that I did en plein air (out of doors) as a birthday present. It inspired me to present to you a work that you may not have seen by one of my favorite Impr ...
Read MoreDid you ever stop to think about the people behind historic art movements? A professor of mine once said that without wealthy patrons such as the Medici in Florence, the Renaissance would not have hap ...
Read MoreI recently attended the wake of a friend’s mom and couldn’t help but contemplate how contemporary funerary rituals differ from those in world history (especially an open coffin). If you pu ...
Read MoreI have previously mentioned in this blog my observation that even though women artists are not covered adequately in art history surveys, they nonetheless were an integral part of art history. I said ...
Read MoreI always delight in sharing with you my many “Aha!” moments. One I had this week came while strolling through my mental art collection, pondering the element of positive and negative space ...
Read MoreYakimono in Japanese refers to a “fired thing.” A reverence for nature has historically been part of Japanese art since ancient times. Interestingly, the evocation of the respect for natur ...
Read MoreI am ending this theme with a simply beautiful piece of architecture. The architect who designed it is not a household name in western art history, but I think he should be. Dominikus Böhm’ ...
Read MoreI was a child in the 1960s, so I don’t really remember the Op Art phenomenon. However, my last year in high school, our art teacher had us do a drawing in pastels that emulated Op Art. I still h ...
Read MoreI don’t usually go Gaga over ceramics (well, wait, yes I do!), but when we added this image to our collection I had a “never knew that” moment. Most art history texts cover the ancie ...
Read MoreWhile accessioning the John James Audubon Quadruped series this week, something occurred to me that I never really considered before, call it my “Hmmm” moment of the week: In the hist ...
Read MoreI close out my Month of New Acquisitions with a pioneer American modernist. Pioneer because she was exploring avant-garde art at a time in America that it was not popular. ...
Read MoreMy fascination with modernism (doesn’t that term sound old-fashioned)—let me rephrase that—forward-thinking art never seems to diminish. Call me lucky (I think I am), but as we add n ...
Read MoreI’ve really admired the work of manuscript illuminators since I went to the Newbury Library at the University of Chicago while in grad school. I got to actually hold some of these precious works ...
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