In the recent tumult many seem to have missed how a recent executive order on “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” looks to enshrine the success of the 2017 “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville.
Category: History
In a Whitney Museum Exhibition, Jewish Artists Go Unrecognized and Unexamined
It seems that, in reinscribing the Mexican muralists who were “written out” of American history, the curators of Vida Americana replaced one exclusion with another.
The Forgotten Federally Employed Artists
Why are the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) artist programs less well known than the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects for being an instance when the federal government employed artists en masse?
How Scientists Use and Abuse Portraiture
Many scientific studies assume that the features of painted faces are the facts of the flesh-and-blood countenances to which they refer. This assumption is not only false; it is preposterous.
Conserving the Art and Legacy of Spain’s First Recorded Female Artist
Once the official sculptor in the court of the last Habsburg king, Luisa Roldán is easily the most famous sculptor you’ve never heard of.
Unearthing Canada’s Impressionist Legacy
Canada and Impressionism closes an art-historical gap on the Canadian artists who made the journey to France — most of whom are little known or studied — and explores what happened when they went back home.
Tracing the Lives of 10 Jewish Children Who Escaped Nazi-occupied Territories
My family’s lore holds that my great-uncle was one of the 10,000 children who were sent to Britain to be fostered wherever they could.
How New York Women, from Village Bohemians to Suffragettes, Won the Right to Vote
In 1917, female New Yorkers were finally invited to the polling booths. An exhibition at the New-York Historical Society argues this victory was largely due to the local activism of the bohemians of Greenwich Village.
The Egyptian Artifacts of a Little-Known, Victorian-Era Woman Collector
An exhibition at the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library sheds light on the somewhat mysterious 19th-century scholar and collector Anne Goodison.
The History of One of the Oldest Astronomical Clocks in the World
While Prague’s famed clock is gone for repairs, we take a look at its history.
How Trompe-L’Oeil Added Information and Ornamentation to Maps
Look But Don’t Touch: Tactile Illusions on Maps at the Harvard Map Collection explores how cartographers have used trompe l’oeil illustrations on maps.