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An Eccentric Visual History of Our Most Basic Shapes
In the 1960s, Italian artist Bruno Munari explored the visual history of the square, circle, and triangle in three books, which Princeton Architectural Press recently compiled.
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“Exactly as It Was”: Ellsworth Kelly’s Basic Training
When art world luminary, Ellsworth Kelly, died in December at the age of 92, his obituaries described him as an artist who rejected the very idea of art as self-expression.
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The Humble Art of Decorated Paper
In April of 1789, a few months before the storming of the Bastille, the paper factory of Jean-Baptiste Réveillon in Paris was taken over by labor protestors, who commandeered the machines to print paper in red, white, and blue.
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A Post-Apocalyptic Graphic Novel by a "Disappeared" Argentinian Writer
It’s as if Oesterheld was telegraphing in The Eternaut the horrors that would befall him at the hands of his own repellent government.
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The First Flash Photographs of the Natural World At Night
With a magnesium flash triggered by a tripwire, George Shiras shot some of the world's first nocturnal wildlife photographs.
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How Graphic Designers Around the World Interpret Shakespeare
When the Globe Theatre along London's River Thames opened in 1599, a flag depicting Hercules hoisting a globe announced the opening of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
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The Many Identities of Raphael's "Lady with a Unicorn"
The 16th-century "Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn" by Raphael was altered twice: first by the artist, who replaced a lap dog with a tiny unicorn; then in the 17th century, when the sitter's bare shoulders were covered and the broken martyrdom wheel of St. Catherine of Alexandria was painted over t
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Revisiting the Nuclear Arms Race in 150 Business Cards
Los Alamos Rolodex: Doing Business with the National Lab, a new book by the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), is a tight little publication with a singular fascination.
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Witch Marks, Curses, and Magic in the Neglected History of Medieval Graffiti
The ornamentation of medieval churches is often associated with the elite, but carved right into the structure of the building are less visible traces of the lower and middle class: graffiti.
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The Ghosts, Mermaids, and Beautiful Rats of Japan's Tiny Netsuke Carvings
Miniature meditating skeletons, snarling cats, eerie ghosts, and gods of fortune carved in ivory, wood, and horn adorned the sashes of Japanese men throughout the Edo period.
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Success Secrets of a Famous Cat Photographer
Once upon a time, there was but One Cat Photographer to Rule Them All.
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Communist China's Cheery Propaganda Posters
In the thousands of propaganda posters produced in China between the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 and the early 1980s, the beaming face of Chairman Mao Zedong watches over a surreal utopia.