Follow @yaleARTbooks You never see just one image when you study a work of art. With a portrait, you see the physical form of a human being; you can also guess at that person’s inner life by examining her expression or posture. You are also seeing a representation of the
Follow @yaleARTbooks September 5, 2012 marks the 100th birthday of American composer John Cage, most often known for the silently performed 4’33’’. Though Cage’s silence as a composition has been deeply considered on Yale University Press’s list with Kyle Gann’s Icons of America book, No Such Thing as Silence, the
Follow @yaleARTbooks “I like skin. It’s so unpredictable.” –Lucian Freud, 7 May 2009 As the grandson of the world’s most famous psychoanalyst, Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011) unsurprisingly used the psychology of both his subjects and his audience to create his provocative portrait paintings. For Freud, painting was always psychological—a
Sarah Underwood— “Baby” I’ll admit it, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into this month. Performance art can be incredibly nuanced, and Michael Smith’s Baby Ikki at the Museum is no exception. In college, I performed with a modern dance company as, among other things, a
In 1908 Robert Sterling Clark, accompanied by a team of hand-picked professionals and support staff, explored the far reaches of Northern China and oversaw the creation of one of the first maps of a largely uncharted area of the world. Before this expedition, Clark served in the army in the
Follow @yaleARTbooks Michael Peppiatt is a world renowned art critic, author, and art historian, who has interviewed some of the 20th century’s most eminent artists. Here, he discusses his new book, Interviews with Artists, 1966-2012, an informal, behind-the-scenes account of his interviews with such art world giants as Bacon, Dubuffet, Moore, Balthus
Follow @yaleARTbooks When we’re asked to envision pop art, we tend to think of an art form that draws its objects and ideas from commercial culture: advertising, celebrity, mass production, etc. What we don’t tend to associate this particular movement with is the painterly. After all, one of the proclaimed
Reflective of his membership in the close-knit theatrical and literary circles of turn-of-the-century Paris, French avant-garde artist Edouard Vuillard’s work is a study in intimacy. Here, curator Stephen Brown, author of Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940, gives us a glimpse into some of the intimate spaces and relationships
Follow @yaleARTbooks The photographer Dawoud Bey, born in 1953, is probably best known for his large-scale color photographs of marginalized groups in contemporary America, and his community-focused and collaborative approach to his art. A new exhibition and accompanying catalogue from the Art Institute of Chicago, Dawoud Bey: Harlem, U.S.A., gets to the root
Follow @yaleARTbooks Painter Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, died on this day one year ago, and it is on this anniversary that we reflect on the English artist’s extraordinary legacy. Perhaps best-known for his nude portraits, Freud perfected his style of portraiture during a period in the history of