Japanese prints at the British Museum
by Carolin C. Young | Lovers in the Upstairs Room of a Teahouse from Utamakaura (Poem of the Pillow) by Kitagawa Utamaro, c. 1788. Sheet from a color wood block-printed album. © Trustees of the British Museum. Those seeking salacious content, accompanied by illuminating explanations, can explore the sexually explicit Shunga art of Japan in an exhibition also hosted by the …
Ancient Colombian gold at the British Museum
by Carolin C. Young | Anthropomorphic bat pectoral, 900–1600. Gold. © El Museo del Oro del Banco de la Republica, Bogotá, Colombia, on view at the British Museum, London. The British Museum this season proves that gold has more to it than mere sparkle in a major exhibition devoted to the metal’s uses and meanings in pre-Hispanic Colombia. Including more than …
Tudor portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London
by Carolin C. Young |Three Unknown Elizabethan Children, artist unknown, c. 1580. Oil on panel. Private collection, on view at the National Portrait Gallery, London. London’s National Portrait Gallery invites visitors to have a firsthand look at the personalities who inhabited Elizabeth I’s realm. Including portraits of the queen and many of her most renowned subjects, such as Bess of …
Renaissance music at Écouen, Paris
by Carolin C. Young | King David and some Musicians, artist unknown, c. 1500–1510. One of three oil on wood panels. Musée National du Moyen Âge-Musée de Cluny, Paris. © Rmn-Grand Palais, photograph by Jean-Gilles Berizzi. Those seeking a lyrical repose from the bustle of the Parisian art world should head to France’s National Museum of the Renaissance at the Château …
“We’re selling it, not renting it”
In this excerpt from a forthcoming memoir, an auction house veteran looks back on his beginning days in the trade.
Facets and settings: Art, affinities, and the designs of David Webb
Excerpts from a new book on the esteemed New York jeweler and his inspirations.
Making Faces
Federal American Vernacular Portraits, 1790s to 1840s.
Clay, Commerce, and a Free Man of Color
An important new exhibition traces the life and work of Thomas W. Commeraw, free Black potter of early New York.