art history

The Entanglement of Art and Slavery in the Work of Juan de Pareja

by Rachel Hunter Himes

Diego Velázquez painted the portrait of Juan de Pareja in 1650. An art historian considers what more we can learn about the painting and the world in which it was made by examining the paradox of a dignified and beatific portrayal of a man painted by another man who enslaved him. 

Kara Walker Disrupts the Visual History of the Civil War in New Exhibition

by Allison Robinson and Ksenia M. Soboleva

The artist Kara Walker's 2005 series of prints merged the historical illustrations that shaped Americans' understanding of the Civil War in its immediate aftermath and in the 1890s with her original subversive take on the tradition of silhouette art to highlight the erasure of Black experiences of war. Two curators are putting Walker's work in context in a new exhibition.

Light and Obliquity: Edward Hopper at the Whitney Museum

by Sam Ben-Meir

The Whitney's retrospective shows works by the painter that depart from the aesthetics of film noir and focus on the alienation and impersonalization of city life. 

Glenda Gilmore's Bio Shows Artist Romare Bearden Reckoning with the South

"Gilmore sets a timeline, critiques some striking artworks, and leaves the reader wondering why hardly anyone writes about art this succinctly."

Islamic World Scholar: Hamline Mistaken to Fire Instructor

by Ahmad Sadri

Hamline University deprived its students—including Muslims—of the chance to learn about a multiplicity of views within the faith. 

Most of All, Hamline's Decision Offends Me as a Muslim

by Amna Khalid

Hamline University, in firing an art history instructor for showing an image of the Prophet Muhammad (with a content warning, in an optional exercise), has not only exemplified how risk-averse bureaucracies use inclusive language to dismiss faculty expertise, it also insulted Muslims by associating a vast and diverse set of cultures with fundamentalist theology. 

Will the Era of the Butt Ever End?

Heather Radke's "Butts: A Backstory" isn't (just) a provocation, but a carefully researched study of how bodily ideals and attractiveness are constructed and reproduced in societies. 

New York Museums to Disclose Provenance of Pieces Looted by Nazis

The Metropolitan Museum has currently identified 53 works as seized or sold under duress by Nazis. It is unclear how many more it will identify in response to a new state law requiring the display of those pieces to disclose the conditions of acquisition. 

Benin Bronzes Have Final German Exhibition Before Repatriation

"'The recognition of the colonial injustices and the subsequent return of the items “will continue to define our work in the future,' Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation."

Vivien Green Fryd Awarded Eldredge Prize for Book on Sexual Trauma in American Art

The prize jurors noted the publication stands out given its “academic rigor, historical understanding and contemporary relevance that characterize the highest achievements in our field.”

Picturing Scent: The Tale of a Beached Whale

by Lizzie Marx

17th century Dutch art developed a particular visual language for conveying the experience of smell. 

A History of Art for Our Times

by Charlotte Mullins

The classic works of art history tell a story of great artists, overwhelmingly European and male. The author's new history refocuses the narrative on the diverse networks of creators through which art is made – networks crossing lines of geography and including women artists and artists of color. 

After COVID Delay, Controversial Philip Guston Exhibit Opens in Boston

Guston's blunt imagery, including Ku Klux Klan figures, arguably interrogates his complicity as a white artist in ongoing racism. Is it offensive to contemporary museum audiences? 

"Is It Cake?" is Brain Candy for Pandemic-Weary, but also Part of Long History of Visual Illusion

by Maggie Cao

"At a time when we often don’t know if what we encounter on our screens can be trusted, it feels good to alleviate those anxieties with a show in which the only consequence of being fooled is cutting into a shoe that we assumed was a cake."

Winslow Homer: The Melville of American Panting

by Susan Tallman

A new exhibition reframes Homer, once seen as a visual poet of American innocence, as an artist who grappled with the bitter conflicts at the heart of the nation. 

Erin Thompson's "Smashing Statues": Tear 'Em All Down

How does taking down a statue relate to the more complicated work of eliminating the racist ideas and structures that put it up? 

Smithsonian to Return All Benin Bronzes

The Smithsonian will return works that it has legal title to own but that are linked to an infamous British raid on Benin City in 1897.

Mississippi Museum of Art Exhibition Opens on Legacies of Great Migration

Opening April 9, this exhibition features newly commissioned works by 12 acclaimed Black contemporary artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates, and more.

Art Historians Shake Up Narratives on TikTok

"TikTok’s art historians are using the platform to explore points of view often excluded in more established spaces like galleries and museums."

Will SCOTUS Uphold Claim of Heirs for Return of Pissarro Painting Stolen by Nazis?

Lower courts have agreed with the Spanish government that US courts are not empowered to adjudicate claims of looted art; if the Supreme Court agrees it could chill further attempts to use American law to return artworks stolen from Europe's Jews by the Nazis.