I’m intrigued by the ice bucket, what should I know about it?
The piece is part of the American Art Deco movement. The style originated in France, but quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. Another growing influence at this time was the machine aesthetic. America in the 1920s and early 1930s was an increasingly machine-driven culture. American artists and designers who wanted to break with the past recognized a new beauty in the machine's appearance and function.
Do you know why the walls in the Cupola House were painted blue like this?
This color is called "Prussian blue" and is a synthetic chemical color developed in the early 18th century in Berlin (then the capital of Prussia).
Prussian blue was one of the most stylish and expensive paint colors available in the early eighteenth century, made popular because it is easily made, and cheaper to produce than previously used blue pigments (although still expensive).
Who is John the Evangelist?
John the Evangelist is the author of the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation. He carries a book as his attribute in reference to his writing of these two texts.
He is thought to be the person referred to in the Gospel of Saint John as 'the beloved disciple' to whom Jesus entrusted the care of the Virgin Mary at his death.
Why is this painting called "The Silent River"?
It likely has to do with the tranquility of the landscape he captured here as well as the lack of people in the scene.
Many artists during this time were interested in capturing empty landscapes and the fleeting effects of both atmosphere and light.
"Though rebirth in the tomb required gender transformation..." So the belief was that
women turn into men?
The theory is that a woman needed to temporarily transform into a man in order to conceive the fetus of her reborn self.
In ancient Egypt, it was believed that people were "reborn" into the afterlife and that coffins and various other containers acted as wombs. It was also believed that men (not women) created the fetus and transferred it to the woman during intercourse.
These beliefs presented a barrier to women wanting to be reborn into the afterlife since they were unable to be reborn by themselves. Through the use of spells and other religious rites, it was believed that after death a woman could temporarily transform to conceive her reborn self and then change back to a woman.
What's the meaning?
The rags and cloths Hammond used to wrap these ladder-like structures reflect her attempt to highlight the terrible working conditions that immigrant women faced in the garment industry in New York.
The way they lean or "hunker" together, supporting one another, is a reference to collective action and assembly, perhaps in the face of injustice.
Cool! Thanks!
Tell me more.
This painting depicts the dress worn by Native American women who were members of the Ghost Dance religion.
The Ghost Dance religion is an intertribal Native American movement that emerged in the late 19th century. Performing the dance was said to reanimate the spirits of dead Indians, who would join together with the living to force out white settlers and reassert native peoples’ way of life.
The artist's work explores her own Native American heritage and the ways her heritage intersects with white settler society both past and present.
My teenager wants to know what’s up with the Wonder Woman video.
The artist is using actual footage from the Wonder Woman television show that was popular in the 1970s. She cuts together various scenes of Wonder Woman's transformation, meant to make the viewer consider the change more closely.
The artist felt that the way Wonder Woman was depicted, and considered by some to be a feminist icon, was unfair. She believed that Wonder Woman was in fact a woman denied any way to live "in between," going from plain jane to unrelatable superhero and back again.
Here's a great quote from the artist: "How dare you confront me with this supposedly super-powered image of a woman who is stronger than I am and can also save mankind? I can’t do that, and I won’t—and there’s no middle ground in between. The middle ground is what we need to work from.”
Great point!
What’s going on here?
Inspired in part by the accoutrements of her fashion commissions, Minter created this video for the Brooklyn Museum’s "Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe" exhibition in 2014. Rather than highlight the glitz and glamour of the designer shoe, Minter’s video is more foreboding. The model’s feet are uncomfortably squeezed into the heels, which slowly and ominously destroy the glass pane separating the subject from the viewer.
Minter actually purchased the shoes the dancer is wearing from a two-for-$50 sale rack and embellished them herself.
Her feet move among and across a surface of what looks like water but is actually silver paint, adding drama and visual interest to the work.
The dancer is Akira Armstrong. She is based in the Bronx and she is the founder of Pretty Big Movement, a "full-figured dance company" that specializes in Hip Hop, Jazz and Ethnic dance. They are currently touring with the band Salt-N-Pepa!
Is this banarasi fabric? Does this work have to do with the Indian transgender Hijra community?
Interesting thought! This flag is actually sewn from six gele. A gele is a head scarf worn by Nigerian women for important events.
Tugbiyele identifies as a queer woman of Nigerian descent. By bringing together six Nigerian textiles associated with womanhood, and putting them together in a spectrum like the "rainbow" of the gay pride flag, she is combining and affirming two aspects of her identity.
Wow! I thought it was banarasi sari fabric! Thanks for informing me!
