In Brief
Botticelli’s Hallucinatory ‘Divine Comedy’ Drawings Return to England After 130 Years
Lucifer gobbles up the souls of three traitors in an icy inferno, sinners are cooked in baths of tar, and a gauzy-robed Beatrice floats in the heavens.
Carey Dunne
Art
At a Generally Flat Art on Paper Fair, Some Cutting Works
“My kid could do that” is the world’s most clichéd dismissal of Modern art.
Art
Painted Maps Jam-Packed with Data
Paula Scher, the first female principal of Pentagram and designer of identities for the Public Theater and Tiffany's — not to mention hundreds of hit album covers — grew up surrounded by maps.
Art
Paula Modersohn-Becker's Simplified Forms and Complicated Life
“For somewhere an old enmity exists between our life and that great work we do,” wrote Rainer Maria Rilke in “Requiem for a Friend,” a eulogy for painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, who died following childbirth at age 31.
News
A New Website Lets You Browse Images of All Publicly Owned Art in the UK
“THROUGH OUR PUBLIC COLLECTIONS WE ALL OWN ART,” reads a new painting by British artist Bob and Roberta Smith (who is one guy).
News
Rauschenberg Foundation Joins 21st Century, Embraces Fair Use
In the age of smartphone cameras and social media, it seems easier than ever for members of the public to freely share pictures of contemporary art.
Art
Documenting the Disappearing Rest Stops of the American West
While on a solo road trip from California to Texas in 2007, Austin-based photographer Ryann Ford became enamored with the quirky designs of the rest stops along Route 66.
Art
The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas
New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her richly textured, rhinestone-encrusted paintings of African-American women and bright, collaged interiors. Lesser known is her photography, which she’s long considered a crucial component of her art practice.
In Brief
Metropolitan Museum’s Admission Now “Suggested” Rather Than “Recommended”
Since 1893, admission to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has been as little as a penny.
Art
A Photographer Follows the Ubiquitous Bike Taxis of Burundi
“Uwunguruza abantu n’ikinga,” in the Kurundi dialect of Burundi, means “bike taxi-man.”
In Brief
Parkas that Read Your Emotions and Project Them as GIFs
The animated GIF is the internet’s handiest shorthand for expressing complex emotions.
News
Amid the 2016 World Press Photo Contest Winners, a Focus on Refugees
A picture by Australian photographer Warren Richardson was crowned the World Press Photo of the Year 2015; it shows a man passing a baby through a barbed-wire fence at the Hungarian–Serbian border.