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arthistory.bsky.social
art historian with eclectic interests early modernist & medievalist, believe it or not
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gift link for a Bay Area architect

The Caligula horse story is looking a lot more plausible these days

Made from my garden

Trump claims he has fired Kim Sajet, the director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, although since the Smithsonian is not part of the government it is unclear if he has the authority to do so: www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/30/t...

My spouse is running an endless cat artist name pun scheme. We've got Robert Mewplethorpe, Frida Clawlo, Jean-Meow Basquiat and Pawblo Picasso. Anyone want to help?

Rembrandt, Pallas Athena, c. 1655. Oil on canvas. 118 x 91cm. Amsterdam, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.

Happening in 15 min! You can listen in on zoom here: zoom.us/j/96924678935 #ItalianArtSociety #KressFoundation #JesseLocker

If a SLAC works for you, cool, but I personally find them claustrophobic. I thrived in large lecture halls and I’m not the only one. ❤️ to the big public schools.

KQED story on the Pacita Abad Archives arriving at Stanford University

Huge score for Stanford's Asian American Art Initiative and Library Special Collections

Marie Watt, Dwelling, 2006. Watt, a member of the Seneca nation, made this from hundreds of donated blankets, each with a tag detailing its story. Unfortunately the Cantor Museum asks visitors not to touch.

To prevent the cat from clawing under the bedroom door at night and howling like she's getting murdered requires three barbell weights holding down three Gardner's Art Through the Ages (complete globals, not halves, not western-only) at the base of the door. The little menace weighs all of 7.5lb.

Thinking of every academic who has had to apply for grants to cover the cost of requesting and licensing images for their books with zero assistance from a publisher

It really undermines journalistic credibility for all of us when institutions refuse to admit that they’re wrong.

The odd detail of Pietro Bembo's nephew claiming he found the tomb of Venus while serving in the Venetian military on Cyprus had not yet found me in Renaissance studies until today. Francesco Sansovino claimed the tomb of Jupiter had been long known on the island of Crete! How does a goddess die?

The Vaillancourt Fountain is pretty odd but it probably shouldn't be demolished.

Ngl, surprised that all the local reviews I've read of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night playing at SF Playhouse do not mention the near-universal condemnation from the autism community and often praise it. Are the neurotypical and neurodivergent communities still so siloed? Seems so.

Received a press release for a gallery show so riddled with art historical errors, I'm tempted to give it to students as a grading exercise. When you want art history, please hire an art historian. PR's going to give you misunderstood Wikipedia at best.

Fight fiercely, Harvard

I realize that as a retired professor I have a responsibility to say more on this than I have. International students are essential to the fiscal bottom line of almost every university. This is an unambiguous attempt to destroy Harvard—permanently. And he won’t stop with Harvard. This is madness.

Will San Francisco ever decide if it loves or hates the Vaillancourt fountain? The artist returns half a century after he graffitied his own fountain right before the dedication ceremony in 1971. [gift link]

Here is a thing you can do to support trans people today. Find your reps' info at reps.fyi or 5calls.org.

I predict admin will cancel salutatorian and valedictorian speeches next year. In the meantime, my regards to the brave graduating classes of 2025. And may all administrators opposed to education get the hell out.

"when it comes to employment prospects, majors in nutrition, art history and philosophy all outperform some STEM-based counterparts, according to a recent analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York" www.cnbc.com/2025/05/16/c...

For ARTnews, I wrote about more looted antiquities in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art being returned to Iraq: www.artnews.com/art-news/new...

If you think COVID vaccines should continue to be available to all: take 5 min and add your comments at the link below. (Advice for what to say in the linked thread.)

I love it when they nap. A bee sleeps on a closed nigella bud.