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The Ship of Gold
On March 15, 1849, the San Francisco Californian announced that “gold has been found in considerable quantities.” These words spread like wildfire, capturing the attention not only of America, but of...
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The Hidden Signature of Man Ray
In 1935, artist/photographer Man Ray set up a camera to shoot a self-portrait. He opened the shutter, positioned himself in front of the camera, and with a small penlight he began to create a sequence...
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Going For The Gold – In Art
Gold. Silver. Bronze. Of course, everyone is familiar with the rank and order of the Olympic medals. But did you know that during the early years of the modern Olympics, juries awarded these medals for...
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Annie Leibovitz: Taking Photography To Great Heights
It’s not every day that the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building in New York City draws such a large crowd. But in 1991, renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz and her assistant Robert Bean, balanced on...
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The Mystery of Gauguin and Polynesia
When Paul Gauguin died on the Marquesan island of Hiva Oa in 1903, he was buried in an unmarked grave. It seems odd that an artist of such renown would be treated with such apparent indifference in his...
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Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Painting The Absurd
During the Renaissance, court portraitists were commissioned to paint the likeliness of the sovereign. Naturally, it was imperative that the artists portrayed their subjects in the most flattering...
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Leonardo da Vinci’s “Horse & Rider” – The Unveiling of a Masterpiece
On Monday, August 27th, a privileged few will be privy to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A sculpture by the great Leonardo da Vinci will be revealed to the world for the first time ever at a private...
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Leonardo’s Last Comission?
It could be the find of a lifetime. A lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci may have been discovered in a remote farmhouse in Scotland. The piece is believed to be a five-hundred-year-old portrait of...
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Gertrude Stein In America
When the name Gertrude Stein comes to mind, it is often associated with Paris in the 1920s. Her home at 27 Rue de Fleurus was a fabulously bohemian outpost, where she, Renoir, Picasso and writers such...
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Art, Money, and the Story of The Peacock Room
The portrait is quite familiar—a severe looking woman in a straight-backed chair, with her stern gaze fixed upon something out of picture. This portrait, Arrangement in Grey and Black, is the...
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Alfred Lucas: Science and Red Gold
He was known as “Egypt’s Sherlock Holmes”—an analytical chemist by training with a talent in forensic science, Alfred Lucas was the ideal candidate to analyze the technical achievements of the ancient...
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The Unknown Sculptures of Jackson Pollock
In certain light, they look like decrepit old pieces of a shipwreck. In others, they take on a morbid, gruesome quality, like the remains of an animal. Or, as the catalog at Matthew Marks Gallery in...
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Controversy Over John Constable’s The Lock
John Constable’s The Lock has become one of the most expensive British paintings ever sold, fetching $35.2 million just last month when it was auctioned off at Christie’s London. The sale though, has...
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Ai Weiwei’s Message Comes To The U.S.
Ai Weiwei may just be the world’s most famous living artist, or at least the most controversial. Emerging as an articulate and brazen voice for individual rights, Ai has dedicated his life to speaking...
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Ernest Hemingway – An Unlikely Patron
When Ernest Hemingway comes to mind, most people think of the great American author. They think of his novels, his short stories. They think of In our Time, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For...
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The History of Color
Some of the greatest discoveries can come about from mistakes. Take William Henry Perkin, a student at the Royal College of Chemistry, for example. While trying to come up with the solution for an...
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The Barberini Family
The Barberini were arguably the most important family in Rome during the Baroque era. Members of this elite family rose to powerful positions within the Catholic Church, whose central administration,...
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The History of the Trevi Fountain
The Fontana di Trevi, or Trevi Fountain, is one of the most recognizable and arguably most beautiful monuments in all of Rome. Every day, hundreds of spectators from all across the world clamor to get...
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Gian Lorenzo Bernini at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680), the greatest sculptor of the Baroque period, transformed the face of Rome with his spectacular fountains, carvings, sculptures and decorations. It is as if his...
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Conservation Brings About a New Face
Art conservation is a painstaking process—just ask Joanna Dunn of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where she works tedious hours wiping a solvent-soaked cotton ball across a canvas. The...
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