videos + essays
Ogata Kōrin, Red and White Plum Blossoms
Combining metallic curls with mottled color, Kōrin’s screens capture the pulsing vitality of early spring.
Pepón Osorio, En la barbería no se llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop)
Osorio’s art explores the experience of being Puerto Rican in New York City.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing
What’s that dog yapping about? This mischievous woman throws caution—and her slipper—to the wind.
John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
Singer Sargent’s evocative canvas turns a sweet, ordinary scene into a symphony of shapes and colors.
The Court of Gayumars—part 1
Producing this lush miniature involved many Persian artists—and likely some familiarity with Chinese sources.
Giorgione, The Tempest
In the distance, lightning strikes. What does it mean? Poetic and evocative, this painting invites interpretation.
Bamboo in the Four Seasons: painting and poetry in Japan
Originally a sliding wall, these golden panels use bamboo, a Chinese motif, to illustrate a Japanese poetic trope.
Still Life with Peaches
Hospitality was key in ancient Rome, and this wall painting shows the gifts that guests may have received.
Carmelo Fernández, The Strait of Furatena in the Minero River
The Colombian Chorographic Commission mapped the country while also documenting the landscape and its people.
Chinese porcelain: production and export
Blue-and-white porcelain was much admired at the Imperial court, but a booming export market also drove production.
Chinese porcelain: decoration
Not all Chinese porcelain is blue and white. Overglaze enamels add touches of pink, green, yellow, and black.
Diego Rivera, Calla Lilly Vendor (Vendedora de Alcatraces)
Rivera celebrates Indigenous culture, but also points to poverty in this melancholy painting of a flower seller.
