#as an art historian

[ramblingsofintrovert]

As I'm doing articles' revisions today...

If you can't say anything nice¹

_____

¹Say it in a footnote.

[ramblingsofintrovert]

Jan Brueghel I, Adoration of the Magi (1600).

KMSKAntwerp

[thetoyboxs]

They've got they're work cut out for them

[stazrd]

Now, all I want is my partner back.

[ramblingsofintrovert]

I reblogged these photos few days ago, so to add to that post

Medieval African Fashion to be Showcased at Berlin’s Bode-Museum

Starting February 6th, Berlin’s Bode-Museum will host Dress to Impress: Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia (In Pracht gehüllt: Rekonstruktionen mittelalterlicher Gewänder aus Nubien), an exhibition highlighting the artistry and elegance of medieval African fashion.

[theinquisitxor]

Researcher and doctorate @NoraEpstein on Twitter just posted a video of the new tattoo she got commemorating her PhD.

And… she footnoted the artwork, with a literal footnote 😂 I love this so much

[wombywoo]

retro 🪖

[pinacoladamatata]

you who I called brother

[ramblingsofintrovert]

With description here.

DÜRER, Albrecht The Little Owl 1506 Watercolour on paper Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

[brambeag]

unfinished mural

[yes-im-a-simple-man]

from what i understand this was basically the movement right

[eddie-rifff]

Brian Eno on stage with Roxy Music - 1972

[shripscapi]

I don’t usually share my oc stuff on tumblr but I like this one and I worked hard on it so I am going to anyways <3

[gingerteadragon]

Doomed to dance for all of eternity 🎀🌹🕜🖤

Anyways have my brain rot for the past couple of days

[ramblingsofintrovert]

Happy Holidays!

Jan de Bray, Adoration of the shepherds (1665). From the @mauritshuis-museum . More here.

[kaijutegu]

@bramblepatch that is a really great question and there's actually a cool answer! Chicago has a robust public art program that has invested in the weirdest shit possible. And that's the point!

So Chicago has a lot of extremely normal sculptures- lots of historical figures, Lincoln, Goethe, this extremely shiny Alexander Hamilton...

And then there's some... other stuff, and it's mostly Pablo Picasso's fault.

So up until the late 50s/early 60s, most of the public art in Chicago was just... y'know, what we think of as public art. But in '63, the folks at the Chicago Civic Center wanted something new and fresh, and so they commissioned Pablo Picasso to do... well, really whatever he wanted. So he made this thing and ended up donating the design to the city. And the city was STOKED because this was Pablo Picasso we're talking about here, and so they started doing things like having all these press events and displaying the maquette without copyright notice and long story short, they accidentally turned it into the public domain... and they kinda leaned into that! it's public art, after all!

Naturally, art critics hated it, so that only made the city lean in more! Let's push boundaries! Let's go weird and abstract! Let's experiment and do things that other cities aren't doing! The push to collect and house contemporary art in the city also got a boost from the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1967 and the development of the Art Institute's modern collection.

Then the 1968 Democratic National Convention happened and the statue got even MORE famous because of the pig. Jerry Rubin, Phil Ochs, and the other Yippies held a press conference where they nominated a pig named Pigasus for president of the United States right before the DNC kicked off. They held this at the Picasso statue, and then they were arrested for disorderly conduct. Yes, the pig was also arrested. The pictures and controversy surrounding everything about that convention shoved the Picasso into the spotlight on an even grander national scale, and it really became a striking emblem of the city.

So all this attention to a piece of art that made people really question what public art should and could be really pushed a lot of dialogue and decisions about art that the city continued to accept and commission. After the Picasso came Flamingo in '74:

Four Seasons, also in '74:

(less abstract but still VERY modern for civic art in what was the 2nd largest city in the country at the time)

Miro's Chicago in '79:

Monument with Standing Beast in '84:

And so on and so forth. This period of heavy investiture in large, public works of modern art helped cement Chicago as a place where contemporary art could thrive in public spaces- and we haven't really stopped! From Cloud Gate (the Bean) to Agora to a lot of neat, thought-provoking pieces scattered around the city. It's something I think is really cool, even if it did get us the nightmare that is Crown Fountain.

And if you want to read more about it, here's some more resources:

This guide is outdated, it's from the Rahm Emmanuel administration, but it has a lot of good pictures and locations for things. It also correctly uses the Sears Tower's name.

A couple of great blogs detailing and cataloguing Chicago's public art scene.

The Public Art Archive isn't Chicago-specific, but it has lots of collections to look at from cities all over the place!

A fascinating look at lost pieces of Chicago's public art- sadly, that now includes Monument with Standing Beast, since Google bought the Thompson Center and tore it down. (The Thompson Center had over 150 pieces of public art, an amazing collection... that's all in some state warehouse now. Hopefully it comes back or is displayed somewhere else that's public, since I'm not sure how much access we'll have to the Thompson Center once Alphabet moves in.)

Anyways I think public art is cool as hell thank you for reading this whole thing!