A new three-part series brings together a wealth of material and voices to present new films, photographs, stories and theories about the brilliant artist.
Man With a Tankard, by Frans van Mieris the Younger (1739).
The Fitzwilliam Museum
In the age of the Black Lives Matter movement, Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequality and violence against racialized people.
In a new land, the ancient past held special meaning.
'Temple of Aphaea, Aegina' by John Rollin Tilton. Courtesy of Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Gathered throughout the period of the British empire and gifted to the people of Glasgow, this famous collection is both spectacular and problematical.
A retrospective of John Byrne’s work over six decades reveals why he is one of Scotland’s most important artists.
In 1970, a 16-year-old Laotian boy drew a picture of his school being bombed. ‘Many people’ died, he wrote, ‘But I didn’t know who because I wasn’t courageous enough to look.’
Legacies of War
Maggie Cao, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The ‘fool the eye’ cakes hearken back to popular paintings from another period in American history when there was anxiety over fakes, fraudsters and misinformation.
The journal of a Pre-Raphaelite writer might help explain today’s turn to spiritualism.
Jeffrey Smart, Margaret Olley in the Louvre Museum.
1994–95 Tuscany, Italy. Oil on canvas 67 x 110 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Bequest of Ian Whalland 1997. 85.1997
Jeffrey Smart is admired for his carefully structured paintings of Tuscany and Rome. This National Gallery of Australia’s centenary celebration of his birth takes the viewer back to Adelaide.
Art historians have long used traditional X-rays, X-ray fluorescence or infrared imaging to better understand artists’ techniques.
Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons
Breathless headlines of artificial intelligence discovering or restoring lost works of art ignore the fact that these machines rarely, if ever, reveal one secret or solve a single mystery.
Reconstruction of the execution of the Arnolfini portrait. Top: Postures of the painter during the painting process. Bottom: views obtained from the four lenses.
Université de Lorraine
Researchers have long tried to unravel the puzzle of Jan van Eyck’s use of perspective in his masterpiece, the Arnolfini Portrait. New research suggests he may have had help from a novel machine.
For as little as $20, you can now own a tiny piece of a valuable work of art.
Yasuko Inoue/iStock via Getty Images
Art is a risky investment, with estimated long-run returns, on average, below stocks. But investing in artworks may provide diversification to an investment portfolio, as well as enjoyment.
Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens.
Flickr/Helen.2006
A special gallery in London’s Kew Gardens allows the visitor to travel the world via the 800-plus detailed paintings of Marianne North, Victorian-era adventurer and botanical artist.
Beyond creativity and thinking skills, arts education will help you enhance your communication and expressive skills, as well as boosting your confidence and self-esteem.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne