Nestled by a Central Florida lake, under magnificent ancient oaks draped with Spanish moss, is a charming small art museum whose appeal lies in the variety of genres and time periods in the art it exhibits. […]
Category: Art History
Have You Met Diné (Navajo) Photographer, Will Wilson?
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 […]
Have You Met Outsider Artist, Earl Cunningham?
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. […]
Discovering American Arts and Crafts Woodblock Prints
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, […]
Have You Met Arthur Wesley Dow?
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 […]
Exploring the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement
Years in the planning, St. Petersburg FL’s magnificent MAACM is the only museum in the world dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts Movement. MAACM is a destination museum for devotees of the design and craftsmanship of the decorative arts in America in the decades flanking the turn of the 20th century. […]
Is She or Isn’t She A Vermeer?
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 […]
Discovering America’s First Modern Art Museum
How many people – even art geeks like us – can name America’s first museum of modern art? We suspect most would also be hard pressed to say where The Phillips Collection is located! Or where Renoir’s well-known and well-loved Luncheon of the Boating Party hangs. It was a surprise to us that The Phillips […]
Exploring Byzantine Art at Dumbarton Oaks
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 […]
Exploring Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks
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 […]