In yesterday's satirical post, I referenced Linda Nochlin's acclaimed 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been no Great Women Artsts?" In honor of National Women's Day, I reread it and got to thinking about women artists and the many, many artists who have been left out. I am not striking today, though I support those women … Continue reading What Women?
All good leaders appreciate the grave importance of protecting their citizens from the threats of invading barbarians, be they Eurasian nomads, Visigoths, Huns, or . . . Mexicans. Donald Trump knows his history and looks to that history with concern and anticipation. He will protect his people from the Great Mexican Horde, just as the … Continue reading The Great Trumpian Wall of Southern America
Today would have been my mother's seventieth birthday. Were she alive today, I would have sent her a bouquet of pale pink roses. She once told me that she thought the two most perfect things in the world were cats and roses. Since she already had a beloved feline in her life, I tried to … Continue reading A Rose
Caspar David Friedrich might be my art history soul mate. On a surface level, I think his paintings are perfection to look at. Their austere, northern landscapes speak to me. The gnarled, bare trees suggest weathering and time and realistically imperfect stories. Friedrich captures the fleeting, eerie quality of transitional light. The sky can only … Continue reading Decay or Rebirth?
I was reminded of Edvard Munch today, and something seemed to click into place. Munch's most famous painting, The Scream, is one of those art history icons that has become so familiar that its original intensity has faded. I don't think I fully appreciated The Scream until last Friday's Inauguration. I am feeling a serious … Continue reading I am Edvard Munch’s The Scream
It turns out I have an "ancestor" who was a painter of some renown. In fact, she is considered "one of the greatest painters of the Old West." I discovered this by chance. My father recently moved to Seattle from Maryland and has unearthed a lot of stuff that had been stuck away in the … Continue reading Mysterious Marjorie
My husband turned to me last night and said, "May you live in interesting times." I'd never heard this famous quotation/curse before. The implication of the saying is that what sounds nice at face value is really quite awful. Think of some "interesting times" from history. What comes to mind? Wars and famine, right? To … Continue reading May You Live in Interesting Times
This semester, in addition to my usual writing/editing gigs, I'm also teaching again. And I'm loving it. I have a wonderful group of students. I'm also loving that it's reminding me about art produced by cultures that I've not thought much about in recent years. Take, for example, Etruscan art. The class is a survey … Continue reading Love in Death
My mother died a few weeks ago and, as I now go about the tedium of daily life, everything feels a little bit vulgar. From what I’ve read about the grieving process this is all very normal. The idea that life can simply keep moving along when you’ve lost someone extremely important to you just … Continue reading Temporary Blindness
Well, given that I just wrote about discovery/discoveries, this seems worthy of a quick post: In 1857 Walt Whitman wrote a 47,000-word series all about maintaining good health with the rather amusing title "Manly Health and Training." Guess what? It had been lost for 150 years, but recently . . . found! You can read … Continue reading Found II
Ellen A. Hurst 