An exhibition of global devotional offerings at the Bard Graduate Center
Mended sea scrolls in New Bedford
Combine the artistic sensibilities of the Bayeux Tapestry with the epic scope and milieu of Moby-Dick, add a dash of Barnumesque showmanship, and you get The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ’Round the World.
Armenia gets its due
An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shines a spotlight on the impressive cultural oeuvre of an overlooked civilization.
An early American art entrepreneur at the Speed
Let the Thomas Coles and Sanford Giffords of the world woo rich patrons, the artist Thomas Chambers went after aspiring members of the middle class, eager to have tokens of refinement in their home—a sweeping vista of Niagara Falls or the Bay of Naples, or a stirring depiction of a battle at sea.
Farther afield
In Antwerp, an arts festival toasts the legacy of Peter Paul Rubens
Art, science, and the Second Great Awakening
The American Folk Art Museum examines the work of Orra White Hitchcock, scientific illustrator and minister’s wife
At the Library Company, the city views of William Birch
We have an idea of life in Philadelphia during the early years of independence thanks, not to an American, but to the English artist William Birch.
Radical modernist and a shepherd at heart
An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art offers an opportunity to appreciate the earthy, elemental spirit in the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi
This summer: art from the heart
This summer, three notable exhibitions around the country present wonderful selections of … call it what you will: folk art, self-taught art, craft, or just plain “art.”
The world of Bill Traylor
A sweeping retrospective at the Smithsonian examines the life and work of one of the most remarkable figures in American art