Diné photographer Will Wilson (b. 1969) presents an authentic, contemporary depiction of Indigenous culture, using historical photographic techniques, in a comparative dialog with the work of Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952). Curtis holds an enduring place the history of photography as a result of his life’s work, the 20-volume The North American Indian. Between 1900 and […]
The uncanny appeal of one of the premier folk artists in American art history is on view at the Mennello Museum of American Art, which holds the largest collection of Cunningham’s work in the nation. […]
In the late 19th century, the wave of Japonisme that washed over Western culture merged with the American Arts and Crafts reform movement — with its heightened interest in craftsmanship and the handmade — leading to the broad acceptance and popularity of color woodcuts. This centuries-old art of Japan inspired American artists to design beautiful, […]
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857, Ipswich, MA – 1922, NYC, NY) should be more widely recognized as a leader on the American art scene of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He worked in watercolor, oils and ink, was a printmaker, a photographer and a lifelong designer. But his real influence was carried forward by his students. While […]
Every three years, the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) highlights the creativity and skill of contemporary portrait artists in America with the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and exhibition. This year’s finalists demonstrate the power of the genre and its capacity to make visual a broad range of life experiences. […]
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was an innkeeper and an art dealer, and in 1653 he became a master in the Saint Luke’s Guild in Delft. He would serve as head of that guild four times in the 1660s and 1670s. These demands on his time — plus the fact that his painting method was slow, meticulous […]
In the early 1920s, philanthropist Mildred Bliss and landscape designer Beatrix Farrand began to create an extensive garden at the Bliss’ Washington DC estate. Collaborating for almost thirty years, the two planned every garden detail, each terrace, bench, urn, and border. Now open to the pubic, the garden is perhaps the last remaining landscape in North America that hews closely to the original Farrand design. In 2014 it was singled out by National Geographic as one of the ten best gardens in the world. […]
Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss began acquiring Byzantine art in the early 1920s. Within a single decade — as a result of their pioneering interest, their refined taste, and the connoisseurship of their advisers – the importance of their collection was already such that they were invited to lend numerous objects to the first major […]
The peoples of the Pre-Columbian world created a long and varied history before Europeans arrived in the “New World.” Much evidence of large-scale architecture, stunning works of art, and complex writing and record-keeping systems remains today, testament to the sophistication of those early civilizations. Ensconced behind high brick walls in residential Georgetown (Washington, DC), Dumbarton […]
“Van Gogh in America” celebrates the Detroit Institute of Arts’ status as the first public museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Vincent van Gogh, his “Self-Portrait” (1887). On the 100th anniversary of that milestone acquisition, 74 van Gogh works from collections around the world reveal the fascinating story of America’s introduction to this iconic […]