The 59th Venice Biennale opened against the backdrop of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and the continuing rise of authoritarianism in Eastern Europe, as Vladimir Putin’s close ally, Viktor Orban, had just won his fourth term as Hungary’s prime minister. At this moment, defined by war crimes and the oppression of minority groups, it seems

From Scratch at Peter Freeman Inc., which features five Eastern European artists, highlights a common desire among the artists that “art should proceed from the basic, elemental, and essential,” as the press release states, while still reflecting on the aesthetic and sociopolitical issues of their geographical and historical contexts. Organized by Croatian art critic and

On March 3, 1942, a special exhibition opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in the Fuller Building at 41 East 57th Street in New York City. Pierre, the youngest son of French painter Henri Matisse and the owner of the gallery, was an art dealer, specializing in modern and contemporary European and American artforms.  While

Shells have long been valued by societies all over the world for their diversity, beauty, and luminescence. Evidence from the Middle Stone Age tells us that shells were the first objects to clearly be used as personal decoration, and in more recent history, shells were a crucial inspiration for artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt,

The president of Germany’s Akademie der Künste(Academy of the Arts, Adk), Jeanine Meerapfel, has been trying to determine how various artists and cultural institutions could rise up against nationalist forces in Europe, an issue she’s been reflecting about ever since she took on the position in 2015. “There is an urgent need for action,” Meerapfel told DW,

Posted on: July 22, 2020; Updated on: July 22, 2020By Anna Swartwood House, houseas@mailbox.sc.edu No one knows exactly what Jesus looked like, and there are no known images of him from his lifetime. Art history professor Anna Swartwood House writes in The Conversation about the complicated history of the images of Christ and how historically they have served

An important artist of the Pictures Generation, a group of American artists in the early ’70s who were known for their analysis of media culture, Cindy Sherman creates photographic self-portraits that critique gender and identity. Serving as director, makeup artist, hairstylist, stylist, model, set designer, and photographer, the artist metamorphosizes into complex characters and shoots

French artist Laurent Ban (2nd L) receives an interview with Xinhua in Paris, France, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) PARIS, March 6 (Xinhua) — An eye-catching music video popped up on renowned Chinese social media platform Weibo last week, in which 40 artists from France, Canada, Italy and other countries sing a song entitled “Together”

This article is more than 4 years old. The New York Contemporary art auctions are chock-a-block with the works of renowned Japanese superstars. There are Yayoi Kusama pumpkins, Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin A/ABC” Christie’s Yoshitomo Nara angry little girls, Yoshitomo Nara’s “The Little Ambassador” Christie’s and Takashi Murakami over-the-top Japanime sexpots.  Takashi Murakami’s “Hiropon” Christie’s These are

The galleries of New York welcome artists, both emergent and established, from around the world. But the city has an indisputable longstanding relationship with modern and contemporary artists from Europe. Turning a twist on Neil Simon’s 1970 American comedy, The Out-of-Towners, a film about an Ohio couple struggling to find their way in the Big Apple,