art history

The often-contentious relationship between artists and those who write about art is as old as culture itself. The art critic’s job is to rationalize what is inherently an irrational pursuit.
If you have a bent for the occasional musical throwback, you may wonder why Prince wouldn't sing about “Red Rain.” At least the aforementioned title could boast an alliterative appeal. Alas, the…
The easy answer is Isaac Newton, but of course, the real answer is more complicated. Though Newton might be better known for his writings on and experiments with gravity and the laws of motion, his…

Can the visual arts capture movement in stillness? This slideshow traces the representation of dance, particularly of…

The ArtCurious podcast continues to be a hit, and now, Jennifer Dasal has parlayed its extraordinary success into a book of the same name, available in September.
In a new Art & Object series, we’ll take a look at some of history’s greatest jewelry stories, showing you how and why jewelry is such a powerful artistic, cultural, and historical artifact.
The embodiment of classical femininity, the goddess Venus has taken many forms throughout art history.
For six weeks in 2011, visitors to room 20 of the Parisian Musee d'Orsay didn't know what to look at first—Gustave Courbet's L'Origine du Monde (1866), or the woman copying it at a nearby easel.