Art
The Collections Behind Great Artists
"Artists, as we know, are notorious collectors, but you always wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg."
Laura C. Mallonee
In Brief
Citing Dubious Flora, Scholar Casts Doubt on National Gallery's Prized Leonardo Painting
New research suggests that Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" at the National Gallery — one of the British museum's most prized possessions — might not be the work of the master after all, the Guardian reported.
Art
Shooting Sites of Execution
In 2006, Britain's Ministry of Defense officially pardoned 306 soldiers it had executed for cowardice or desertion during World War I. Photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews has embarked on her own photographic tribute to them.
Art
An Artist Residency Aboard a Cargo Ship
Fantasizing about an artist residency? It’s unlikely that vision includes a cargo ship. The enormous container carriers supply 90% of everything — from the food you eat to the clothes you buy — but they aren’t exactly, well, dreamboats.
Art
20th-Century Models of Speed and Wonder
Transportation is one of the few industries in which design has so consistently been the driving force. Who hasn't at some point been stopped in their tracks by the polished silhouette of a classic Corvette? The car's controlled curves evoke speed, and that speed creates the illusion of power.
News
Israel Indicts Palestinians for Antiquities Looting
Six Palestinians were indicted in an Israeli court with illegal digging for antiquities on December 7, Haaretz reported.
Art
How Mosaics Are Shaping Haiti's Future
When the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, it leveled much of Jacmel's colonial architecture, and the streets were given over to piles of rubble. In the wake of this disaster, visitors to the country's cultural capital might be surprised to find that dozens of mosaics now enliven its walls, plazas, and pub
Art
The Art in the Stars
People have been photographing the heavens ever since the invention of the daguerreotype. Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and Minor White all, at one point or other, turned their cameras upward.
Art
What Social Media Tells Us About the Venice Architecture Biennale
How do you determine the success of an exhibition — by the number of visitors, the tenor of their reactions, or some other gauge? That's the question Maria Novozhilova tackles in her assessment of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, which ended late last month.
Art
Looking at Asia Through the Traveler's Eye
Charles Lang Freer and Ernst Herzfeld and are two names most people wouldn't recognize, yet both men were extremely instrumental in shaping the West's perception of Asia.
Art
The State of Iberoamerican Folk Art
In 1995, Cándida Fernández de Calderón embarked on a remarkable expedition to support Mexican folk art.
Art
Drawing Hemingway's Cuba
James Richards, a landscape architecture professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, finds anecdotal proof in the life of Ernest Hemingway.