Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987), magnified popular American culture in his art, and in so doing he himself became a paradigm of popular culture. “His pop sensibility embraced an anything-can-be-art approach, appropriating images, ideas and even innovation itself,” according to curatorial signage at Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life in Pop. This exhibition, on through September 8th, […]
Category: Art Exhibitions
Have You Met the Big Four?
Painters by numbers. Canada has it’s Group of Seven. Cuba has Los Diez Pintores Concretos. The Taos Six applied academic techniques to indigenous themes, producing a uniquely American school of painting. Then there’s the international group of wildlife painters of the late 1800s and early 1900s — Richard Friese, Wilhelm Kuhnert, Bruno Liljefors, and Carl Rungius […]
Discovering the RCA+D Galleries
Beginning with 75 students and 13 faculty members in 1931, RCA+D has grown to more than 110 buildings on 48 acres (SEVEN of which are art galleries!), 1600 students, and 140+ faculty members. Today it is ranked as one of the top art schools in the nation. […]
Discovering the National Museum of Women in the Arts
At the angle of New York Ave. and H St. NW in Washington DC stands a 1908 landmark that was built as a Masonic Temple. In that capacity, women were not permitted to enter the building. Today, that same building is all about women — although men are more than welcome! Refurbished in accordance with the […]
Have You Met Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella?
At the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC is an unexpected exhibition titled Impressive: Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (on through October 20, 2024). Ranging across the blue walls of three adjacent alcoves, a series of twenty-five 17th-century prints by artist Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (Lyon,1641-Paris,1676) depicts The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua (1675). The […]
Seeing Dorothea Lange’s Compassion
The powerfully moving and iconic photograph, Migrant Mother (below), is the one image most people see in their mind’s eye when they think of Dorothea Lange. That was certainly true for me. But then I had the good fortune to spend time with dozens of her ground-breaking images, all equally eloquent and poignant, at the […]
An American in Paris: Donald Beauregard
When a man’s life is cut short at a young age one wonders what his future might have been – especially when he had already accomplished notable things. This is the case with Donald Beauregard. “Who?” You might well ask. Beauregard was an artist most of us have never heard of, but one who might […]
Knotty Ladies Make a Beautiful Mess
Eleven women have been curated into a group show that throws new light on fiber art. These conceptual artists push the boundaries of their textile-based medium. While freely breaking the rules, they are serious about making a strong cultural and intellectual impact, while deftly and masterfully weaving meaning into their work. […]
Curiouser and Curiouser – The “Wundercammer” is a “Thing” in Houston
Not unlike Grandma’s curio cabinet, a 16th- and 17th-century ‘cabinet of curiosity” was filled with a collector’s treasures. Although a small collection might have been laid out in a drawer, or arrayed on shelves, the term cabinet originally was defined as a room rather than a piece of furniture (think water closet and the Italian equivalent, gabinetto). It […]
David Bowie’s Post-Modernist Space Oddities
From the Renaissance through the mid-19th century, Western artists applied the logic of perspective in their work and were judged by their skill in reproducing reality. But fundamental changes in technology, science and philosophy were occurring by the end of the 19th century, inducing a series of new aesthetic movements. Some were longer-lived than others. […]