ARTES MAGAZINE

John James Audubon. The name brings to mind the majestic beauty and grace of a vast collective of wildlife portraiture. However, it is crucial to remember Audubon’s detailed scientific observations as well, for his work in that capacity is still valid today. Fascinated by the natural world around him, Audubon’s ability to capture image and [...]

The history of Paris porcelain (known familiarly in France as vieux Paris) began around 1770 and refers not to a single manufacturer, but to more than thirty porcelain sources, based within the City of Paris between the mid-1700s and the end of the Second Empire in 1870. The term was not actually used until the [...]

 Two recent exhibitions looked at the multiple stories woven into textiles. Navajo Textiles: Diamonds, Dreams, and Landscapes was a year-long exhibition in three themed rotations held at the University of Colorado’s Museum of Natural History in Boulder, Colorado (May 31, 2009 – May 31, 2010). Trading Cloth and Culture was the spring exhibition at the [...]

This is a tale of two historic homes in a beautiful seaside, New England town, and of how visionary zeal and coincidence braided history, friendship and a passion for things beautiful together in a most unusual way… On May 1, 1915 Alfred Vanderbilt boarded the Lusitania bound for Liverpool as a first class passenger. It [...]

The museums of Washington, DC are renowned for their exhibitions of eminent artists. Only infrequently however–in that city of policy and politics–do three exhibits appear in tandem, showcasing the work of artists who contributed to altering the definition of art in the twentieth century. This spring and summer, viewers are offered an opportunity to observe [...]

Place, memory, and emotion are closely intertwined in the paintings of Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), at a exhibition currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Thoroughly grounded in the landscapes and neighborhoods of Western New York, Burchfield meticulously observed and freely interpreted places that others might overlook—sites not conventionally scenic or remarkable—transforming them [...]

In the early 1800s, the natural splendor and proximity of the upper Hudson River Valley served as an ideal tourist’s retreat for the new middle-class population of a burgeoning New York City, just a few miles to the south. By newly-invented steamboat (also a Hudson River first) and train, they came in search of the [...]

 This essay is the second of a two-part series, and deals with the materials, techniques and physical history of easel picture-painting in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is inspired by looking closely at the collections of the National Gallery in London, England.      While there were certainly differences in the practice of painting [...]

“Every portrait is, in some sense, a self portrait that reflects the viewer. Because ‘the eye is not satisfied with seeing,’ we bring to a portrait our perceptions and our experiences. In the alchemy of the creative act, every portrait is a mirror.” In his opening paragraph of the chapter entitled, The Image as Reflection”, [...]

 The Exquisite Corpse has lived many lives!  But first, a brief explanation is required…  The early 20th century was an era of experimentation in the visual arts, music, literature, design and architecture—particularly in Europe. The world was swept up in scientific and industrial innovations of the period. Many believed that civilization stood poised on the [...]