Erica Galvin

Deborah Moss is a New Zealand-based artist interested in expressing an intimate connection with the natural world and its transcendent quality through colour and emotive mark making to convey the sensation of being immersed in a place. Moss exhibits in New Zealand and Australia, and her work is held in numerous international private collections. A: In Issue 104 of Aesthetica, we feature Where Memory Sets Forth. What is the inspiration behind this piece? DM: That work was part of a series I created for an exhibition in 2021 called Moments of Light. It’s a type of rhythmic ode to the gardens surrounding my studios and the memory of walking among a chorus of flowers in full bloom, which is awe-inspiring. A: You’ve mentioned that you’re interested in “expressing an intimate connection with the natural world and its transcendent quality”. Are all of your works based upon real places, or do some of them come from your imagination? DM: Many of my works are derived from observations or e

Eike Schmidt, the director, says it is “very important to get the dust off and to show what is relevant.” The museum has been working toward that end. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/WmX70GdxF via IFTTT

Whatever our religious background, we all sooner or later have occasion to speak of nailing theses to a door. Most of us use the phrase as a metaphor, but seldom entirely without awareness of the historical events that inspired it. On October 31, 1517, a German priest and theologian named Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg’s All Saints’ Church his own theses, 95 of them , which collectively made an argument against the Roman Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences, or pardons for sins. Luther could not accept that the poor should “spend all their money buying their way out of punishment so they can go to heaven,” nor that it should be “easier for the rich to avoid a long time in purgatory.” In other words, Luther believed that the Church in his time had become “way too much about money and too little about God,” according to the narration of the short film above . Created by Tumblehead Studios and showcased by National Geographic for the 500th anniversary of

On the surface of things, Anthony Roth Costanzo , the internationally-recognized countertenor and Justin Vivian Bond , the subversive performance artist best known for their creation Kiki DuRane , “an alcoholic battle-axe with a throat full of razor-blades,” would have little reason to share a mic, let alone inhabit the same stage. Leave surfaces behind! Their genre-defying, just released album, Only An Octave Apart , explores the depths that lurk beneath them, finding common cause between their chosen art forms and then some. The album’s title, a nod to the opening number of a Metropolitan Opera television special starring comedian Carol Burnett and operatic soprano Beverly Sills , is just the tip of the iceberg. As they state in the program notes for a recent appearance with the New York Philharmonic at Jazz at Lincoln Center: We each sound different from what you would expect when you look at us. The juxtaposition of our voices, personalities, and repertoire subverts noti

The term “uncanny” – or “unheimlich” (unhomely) – was first used by German psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch in the essay On the Psychology of the Uncanny, published in 1906. Today, it’s most often associated with Sigmund Freud, who, in 1919, defined it as a descriptor for something familiar, yet alien, at the same time. Doppelgängers, mirror images and inanimate figures coming to life are all examples of this phenomenon. For over 100 years, such images have sparked a sense of morbid fascination: appearing across surrealist art, experimental cinema and, today, in contemporary photography. One such artist is Brooke DiDonato (b. 1990), whose outdoor exhibition in Luxembourg is titled As Usual. Yet all is not as it seems. The New York-based photographer is recognised for crafting everyday scenes distorted by “visual anomalies” – glitches in the norm. From vast deserts to suburbia, DiDonato creates a universe which is slightly off kilter. Bodies intertwine, trees bend backwards and iron fences

Last week, a Tennessee school board voted unanimously to ban Maus, the Pulitzer-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust , citing instances of profanity and nudity. Specifically, the McMinn County school board objected to utterances of the words “God damn” and a small, barely-perceptible breast . ( Look closely , and you may eventually find it.) Rather uncomfortably, the banning came on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and it figures into a larger right-leaning effort to ban books countrywide . Happily, bad decisions can have good unintended consequences. In recent days, Art Spiegelman’s Maus has soared to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list . (Another edition of the book sits at #3 on the list.) Elsewhere, a college professor has created a free online course on Maus designed solely for students from McMinn County. And within Tennessee itsel f , bookstores are giving away free copies of Spiegelman’s classic, while a church has decided to convene conversations

Watch above a classic movie made by David Rogers at Vanderbilt University in the 1950s. It shows “a neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) chasing a bacterium through a field of red blood cells in a blood smear. After pursuing the bacterium around several red blood cells, the neutrophil finally catches up to and engulfs its prey. In the human body, these cells are an important first line of defense against bacterial infection. The speed of rapid movements such as cell crawling can be most easily measured by the method of direct observation.” This comforting video comes courtesy of the estate of David Rogers, Vanderbilt University. Would you like to support the mission of Open Culture? Please consider making a donation to our site . It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal , Patreon , Venmo (@openculture) and Crypto . Thanks! Re

A new exhibition at London’s Royal Academy highlights Francis Bacon’s paintings of animals. We showed them to some specialists in their subject matter. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3r6Mwq6 via IFTTT

Despite an ongoing legal challenge, New York City is going ahead with a plan for artwork at a new park that will feature messages of social justice, not the statuary some had sought. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3g7ZEEV via IFTTT

The idea of the “metaverse” has dominated recent technology headlines, from NFTs and cryptocurrencies to Facebook’s recent rebrand to Meta. In January, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard – one of the world’s largest video game companies. It’s a complex and slippery term, but largely speaking, the metaverse imagines a network of virtual spaces where people can work, game and connect. Featured here is one such location. Created by digital artist Andres Reisinger (b. 1990) – who was listed, in 2020, amongst Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 – Winter House represents a step towards the digitisation of interiors and real estate. It’s the preliminary project of Reisinger’s metaverse architecture company, and is designed in collaboration with architect Alba de la Fuente. The result combines geometry with soothing colours. Reisinger and de la Fuente were inspired by German designer Dieter Rams (b. 1932), who, in the late 1970s, was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of

Marcel Duchamp made films , composed music , painted Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 , designed an art deco chess set , and of course — the first thing most of us learn about him, as well as the last thing many of us learn about him — he put a urinal in an art galley . But as you might expect of an artist who spent the early 20th century at the heart of the avant-garde, there’s more to him than that. This notion is backed up by the more than 18,000 documents and 50,000 images made available at the Duchamp Research Portal , a newly opened archive dedicated to the life and work of the revolutionary conceptual artist. The fruit of a seven-year collaboration between the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Association Marcel Duchamp, and the Centre Pompidou, this formidable digital collection includes many artifacts related to the artist’s best-known work: the “large glass” of The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even ; the mustachioed Mona Lisa ; the shocking attempts to commit ph

Gallerists  James Payne and Joanne Shurvell  understand that institutional big gorillas like  the Louvre ,  the Musee d’Orsay ,  Tate Britain , and London’s  National Gallery  require no introduction. Their new art and travel series,  Great Art Cities Explained , concentrates instead on the wonderful, smaller museums the biggies often overshadow. First time visitors to London and Paris may be left scrambling to rearrange their itineraries. The first two episodes have us persuaded that  Sir John Soane’s Museum ,  Kenwood House ,  the Wallace Collection , Le  Musée National Eugène Delacroix ,  Le Musée de Montmartre à Paris , and  Atelier Brancusi  are the true “don’t miss” attractions if time is tight. Credit Payne, whose flair for dishy, far ranging, highly accessible narration made his other web series,  Great Art Explained in Fifteen Minutes , an instant hit. The three British institutions featured above were once grand private homes, whose owners decided to donate them a

Tauba Auerbach’s eclectic works reignite wonder where art and science collide in this career survey at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3r88UPC via IFTTT

The house, known as Geller I, helped Breuer to develop the style that made him a leading postwar architect, historians said. Officials said the current owners followed all local rules. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3rYcafW via IFTTT

Justice Stephen G. Breyer has been a juror on the panel that awards the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s greatest honor, since 2011. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3g0SqTl via IFTTT

There’s a new gallery show and book of his whimsical line drawings — and coming this summer, an immersive art-and-science experience. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3o0RX88 via IFTTT

The painting, which last sold in 1963 for $26,000, is part of a sale of works by old masters Thursday. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3r7ELjM via IFTTT

Before the advent of the motion picture, humanity had the theater — but we also had paintings. Though physically still by definition, paint on canvas could, in the hands of a sufficiently imaginative master, seem actually to move. Arguably this could even be pulled off with ochre and charcoal on the wall of a cave, if you credit the theory that paleolithic paintings constitute the earliest form of cinema . More famously, and much more recently, Rembrandt imbued his masterpiece The Night Watch  with the illusion of movement. But over in Italy another painter, also working on a large scale, pulled it off differently two centuries earlier. The artist was Paolo Uccello , and the painting is The Battle of San Romano . “The set of three paintings depicts the harrowing details of an epic confrontation between Florentine and Sienese armies in 1432,” writes Meghan Oretsky at Vimeo , which selected Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel’s short animated adaptation of the triptych as a Staff Pick

Białowieża Forest, on the border of Poland and Belarus, is the largest surviving remnant of a vast area of primeval woodland that once stretched across Europe. The landscape has remained unchanged for millennia, surviving partly as a hunting ground for Russian Tsars and Polish Kings. It is home to more than 5,500 plant species and 11,564 animal species, including the largest population of free-ranging European bison. For photographer Nicolas Blandin, entering the forest is “like taking a trip back in time…while letting the senses take over. The smell of grass, leaves, wood, and bark slowly returning to the earth while sustaining thousands of creatures in the perpetual cycle of life.” But the journey documented in Blandin’s new photobook Puszczka (a Polish term simply meaning “old forest”) is not one of simple escapism. Białowieża Forest was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 and is protected by EU directives. Nonetheless, the Polish government’s ruling Law and Justice

Our critics and writers have selected noteworthy cultural events to experience virtually and in person in New York City. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3rY9K0E via IFTTT

Great news for Open Culture readers. Taschen, the publisher of beautiful art books, is running its biannual warehouse sale . It starts today and runs through Sunday, January 30th. This sale gives you the chance to buy art books at nicely discounted prices –anywhere from 25% to 75% off. Here’s a list of some notable picks, and remember that the books tend to sell out quickly: Salvador Dali’s Wine Guide and Cook Book Leonardo. The Complete Drawings Japanese Woodblock Prints Tarot. The Library of Esoterica Bauhaus O’Keeffe Zaha Hadid. Complete Works 1979–Today Basquiat The Rise of David Bowie. 1972–1973 Rembrandt. The Complete Drawings and Etchings The Golden Age of DC Comics Bob Dylan. A Year and a Day Find the complete list of discounted titles here . Note: Taschen is a partner with Open Culture. So if you purchase a discounted book, it benefits not just you and Taschen. It benefits Open Culture too. So consider it win-win-win. Would you like to support the mission of

The artist, whose installations and sculptures run from microscopic to immense, is having a midcareer survey at SculptureCenter, her largest exhibition since 2001. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3AxVYpA via IFTTT

With four surveys, the challenging Los Angeles artist has redefined his art form in a flat-screen world. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3AxiZce via IFTTT

The new fair will run every October at the Grand Palais, a glittering venue that had been home to the FIAC contemporary art fair for the last 47 years. from Art Life Culture https://ift.tt/3480YFa via IFTTT

On September 30, 1935, a crowd of thousands watched as President Franklin Roosevelt officially opened the Hoover Dam, the largest public works project of its time. “Approximately 5 million barrels of cement and 45 pounds of reinforcement steel” went into it,  History.com  notes, enough to pave a four-foot-wide sidewalk around the Earth at the equator. The massive hydroelectric dam provided water to 7 surrounding states, transforming the arid American West into an agricultural center. Currently, it generates over four billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, “enough to serve 1.3 million people,” notes PBS . That a project this size could be completed in just five years seems awe-inspiring enough. That it could be done during the worst years of the Great Depression, even more so. When the dam was first proposed in 1922 to deal with flooding on the Colorado River, the crisis still lay over the horizon. A glorious post-war future seemed assured, masterminded by Hoover, the for