“Why do all old statues have such small penises?”
Today, big penises are seen as valuable, but back then, evidence points to the fact that small penises were considered better, including on old statues.
Today, big penises are seen as valuable, but back then, evidence points to the fact that small penises were considered better, including on old statues.
Reader question: “Can you tell me about the changes that took place in human development from the Paleolithic through the Neolithic periods, and the ways in which art was affected by those changes?” This is an exciting question for me, because as someone who currently works every day with contemporary visual culture, I don’t get much …
The history of colours in art is really weird and interesting. It’s true that the availability of various colours has often determined which ones are used.
Reader question: “Who is the Englishman meant to be in Kazimir Malevich’s 1914 painting An Englishman in Moscow?” Well this is quite rare: a question focusing on just a single painting! A painting that, the more you look into it, makes you want to slam your head against the desk and yell “WHAT DOES IT …
Reader question: “I wonder if there have been women engaging in abstract expressionist art and if we maybe only don’t know them because Clement Greenberg forgot to tell us about them?” – asked by Natascha Short answer: Yes! There were plenty of women engaging in Abstract Expressionist art that simply never gained the fame and …
Is it always better to see art in person rather than as a reproduction? Do we always understand art better when we do?
It’s sometimes hard to admit that beautiful and famous art, such as that by Paul Gauguin, can also be based on racist and sexist attitudes.
Silver gelatine photography was the main form of photography from the 1880s up until the introduction of instant colour photography in the 1960s.
Why was Cimabue so important? The reason has a lot to do with our traditional, and perhaps flawed, understandings of the Renaissance.
Western art history does little to address the artistic traditions of non-Western countries. Art history needs to be inclusive of non-Western art.
Lesbians and queer women have always existed, in different social contexts. Lesbianism in art history appears in multiple forms: erotic, social, political.
Cultural appropriation is nothing new. About a century ago there was an entire art movement completely based on cultural appropriation: Primitivism.