art history

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Remaking Favorite Art Works

by Hrag Vartanian on December 20, 2011

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Booooooom invited their readers to recreate their favorite paintings or photos using photography. The results are pretty creative.

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Post image for Pepper Spray Cop Meme Walks Through Art History

The pepper-spray cop from UC Davis, or Lt. John Pike, has become a meme, but not just any meme but one that is walking through art works of every stripe if only to prove have ridiculous and absurd his actions were in the face of non-violence resistance.

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Post image for Who Is The Artist? Thoughts on Anonymous Street Art

Evacuated from my Lower Manhattan apartment and hiding from Hurricane Irene, I find myself thinking about anonymous street art and what it means to art-viewing practices. Different from traditional art and even graffiti, the anonymous works that are found on construction walls, corners of the street and shop grates pose a difficult yet exciting problem for the street art or historian enthusiast that comes across them.

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Post image for A Century Later, Mona Lisa Is Still Here

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, and the Financial Times observes the occasion with a fascinating feature article that tells the tale of the theft of what was (then as now) the world’s most famous work of art

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Post image for Five Works of Art for the Beginning of Summer

This post is an image-only art mix tape of 5 works of contemporary art chosen around the theme of summer. It’s my look at the oncoming season through art, specifically inspired by our recent humidity.

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Post image for New 25,000 Year Old Cave Paintings Discovered in Spain

Cave paintings are so in right now! From Werner Herzog’s documentary to the recent discovery of new cave paintings in Spain, primitive art is totally in fashion. These newly uncovered 25,000 year-old paintings are thin line drawings of horses and human hands, rendered in a deep red.

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Post image for Remembering Art Historian Leo Steinberg

Renowned art historian Leo Steinberg died on March 13. The iconic academic, lecturer and critic left behind a legacy of books, papers and comments that have been memorialized in recent days. Here are a collection of reactions to Steinberg’s passing, as well as archives of articles and talks.

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Post image for Seton Hill University to Give Students iPads with Art

Last March, Seton Hill University announced it was giving its full-time undergrads and faculty iPads. Now they are going a step further for art history students and they want to outfit the tablets with Art Authority, an app that allows them to access 40,000+ historic paintings and sculptures.

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Reviving the Stories of Art

by Hrag Vartanian on February 17, 2010

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The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones doesn’t have time for contemporary art history. In his latest post, “The trouble with art history? It’s boring,” he explains why:

Perhaps art history is coming to its senses, and learning to tell stories that bring great art to life. If so, it

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