Art
350 Years After the Great Plague, Its Skeletal Reaper Remains
Death as a skeletal grim reaper was cemented as a symbol during the plagues in Europe, which stretched from the 14th to 18th centuries.
London
News
Surprise, Women's History Museum Actually Devoted to Jack the Ripper!
The founder of the controversial, soon-to-open Jack the Ripper Museum — initially presented as a museum that celebrates women in London's East End — is defending his vision of it as a site to explore local women's history and stories.
Interview
Hans Haacke on "Gift Horse," Gulf Labor, and Artist Resale Royalties
Early last March, London’s Conservative mayor Boris Johnson unveiled Hans Haacke’s “Gift Horse,” the tenth commission installed on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth.
In Brief
Masked Men Storm London's National Portrait Gallery in Bizarre BP Protest
On Sunday, masked men entered the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, causing panic and a "stampede," as the London Evening Standard reported.
Art
Dispelling the Victorian Myth of the Fallen Woman
At the same time that they cast her to the margins of society, Victorian England was obsessed with the "fallen woman," who had lost her virtue to sex, alcohol, or some other vice.
Art
Dispelling the Victorian Myth of the Fallen Woman
At the same time that they cast her to the margins of society, Victorian England was obsessed with the "fallen woman," who had lost her virtue to sex, alcohol, or some other vice.
News
Liberate Tate Annotates Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 25-Hour Guerrilla Protest
Activist art collective Liberate Tate completed a 25-hour unsanctioned performance inside Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on Sunday, urging the institution to drop its sponsorship deal with BP, one of the world's largest oil companies.
Art
An Addictive Experiment in Annotating Footage from a London Street
In 1974, French writer Georges Perec's "An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris" is part of the inspiration behind Kyle McDonald's new online interactive Exhausting a Crowd.
Art
Painting a Kangaroo When You've Never Seen One
To show animals of distant locales to the public in centuries before photography, artists were sometimes enlisted to recreate exotic fauna through secondhand descriptions or some scrap of skin or skeleton.
Art
Coffin Beds and Penny Sleeps: An Exhibition on Victorian Homelessness
Over a century later, the voices of those taking refuge in the tomb-like beds of a Victorian homeless shelter are difficult to resuscitate, their experiences only echoed in the recordings of outsiders.
Art
Using Fiction to Map the Emotional Geography of Victorian London
The Stanford Literary Lab has plotted quotes from over 700 19th-century authors who mentioned locations in London in order to compose concentrations of dread or happiness.
News
Once More, Britain Refuses to Return the Elgin Marbles
In 2013, UNESCO asked the British Museum to let it mediate a deal between it and the government of Greece, which has been calling for the return of the Elgin Marbles with ever-growing fervor for the past 30 years.