Cultural Villages in South Africa
Originally viewed as a way to educate tourists on the multiple peoples and traditions of South Africa, cultural villages may soon be a thing of the past.
The Case of Caspar David Friedrich
Born 250 years ago, Friedrich reimagined landscape painting by portraying the vastness of nature as a setting for profound spiritual and emotional encounters.
An Age of Fantasy Politics
Tropes from science fiction and fantasy have become fodder for political rhetoric and action on all sides in the twenty-first century.
Pondering the Pritzker Prize
It’s the Pritzker’s ultimate challenge: highlighting the important contributions of architects working today without knowing how their legacies will play out.
Mining for European Art
Advances in painting in early modern Europe were the product not just of artistic innovation but of changes in mining and manufacturing technology.
Surrealism in Cinema, 100 Years On
A century after the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto, the role played by film in the movement is still unfolding.
Cleopatra’s Nose
Edmonia Lewis, a sculptor of African and Native American descent, gave Cleopatra “white” European features in her 1876 representation of the Egyptian ruler.
Becoming Beatrice
Dante adored her so much that he cast her as his guide in the Divine Comedy. But who was Beatrice Portinari?
Lost Literacies Strips Down the Dawn of Comics
In his new book, literary historian Alex Beringer demonstrates how the birth of the genre of printed comic long preceded the Sunday Funny Pages.
Gae Aulenti: An Independent, International Architect
One of the best-known female architects to come out of Italy, Aulenti found fame with her transformation of a dated Parisian train station into the Musée d’Orsay.