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August 27, 2024

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Jacob Lawrence: The Power of Pictorial Narrative

September 07, 2022

“I’ve always been interested in history, but they never taught Negro history in the public schools…I don’t see how a history of the United States can be written honestly without including the Negro. I didn’t [paint] just as a historical thing, but because I believe these things tie up with the Negro today. We don’t have a physical slavery, but an economic slavery. If these people, who were so much worse off than the people...

Birthday Observances: Agnes Pelton

August 22, 2022

“Discovering” an accomplished artist who marches to a beat so outside the acceptable songs of his or her time can be refreshing. In retrospect, when civilization has caught up, the artist often seems to have been prophetic. The Age of Aquarius has familiarized us with altered consciousness and Agnes Lawrence Pelton’s work does not seem strange or different to us....

From Mughals to Minis: The Enduring Paisley Motif

August 15, 2022

Indian textile block, single boteh motif, carved wood (collection of the artist)

Very few design motifs have withstood the vicissitudes of fashion as well as paisley. It’s incredibly versatile—cacophonous and ebullient elements can be channeled into a sophisticated all-over pattern or individual “pine cones” can be released on their own to create a simple appealing repeat. Through the centuries its motifs have been transformed, embellished, and recombined endlessly....

The Painted I: Jan Van Eyck

August 01, 2022

Art may commemorate the sitter, but may also change him, even cancel him, despite the wishes of both parties. . . when high talent, let along genius comes in, the painter is preparing an image which will represent the sitter after death, and thus in some way replace the living person.
-Julian Barnes, The Man in the Red Coat