This Gorgeous Hand-made Piece Of The Kotel (Western Wall) Depicts The Heart Of Jewish Culture.

Historian of Jewish life in medieval Egypt wins MacArthur ‘genius award’: http://dlvr.it/CJHfz3

Dark paths. Edinburgh, Scotland

original travel photography by- mbphotograph

West African women, unlike their East African sisters, eschew the bright reds and other primary colors. They allow themselves black, white, ocher, yellow and beige earth tones. They do employ blue, but it is the blue black, electric indigo or the soft, subtle blue of West African mornings. Maya Angelou, Art of Africa, Even the Stars Look Lonesome.

Design Patterns from Ghana. Though the colour palette is broader than defined by Maya Angelou I like that the excerpt distinguishes the way colours (and of course designs) vary in African countries and in particular how this is tied to the landscape.

The first pattern reminds me a little of a kolam called Sita Mudichu (Sita’s Knot). and the last of the simple pulli (dot) kolam.

Pic Source.

just opened:

“HYSTERIA: Spatial Conversations with Florine Stettheimer”  Rosson Crow

Sargent’s Daughters Gallery, 179 East Broadway, NYC

In this recent body of work, Crow debuts a new technique of Xerox transfers layered with painting on the canvases. Crow has long been fascinated by history and the psychology of interior spaces, and has addressed subjects as varied as French Revolutionary interiors, New York City graffiti and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. This exhibition represents Crow’s response to the paintings of Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944), a New York artist whose paintings date from the 1910s to the 1940s.  Although considered a very important artist of her time, (Marcel Duchamp organized her retrospective exhibition at MOMA in 1946, and she was included in the first Whitney Biennale in 1932) Stettheimer’s works are relatively unknown today as she steadfastly refused to sell or show them in galleries.  Since her death, they have often been dismissed as overly “feminine” and “eccentric” and today Stettheimer remains known mostly to a growing cult of women artists on both sides of the Atlantic who love and claim her influence. - thru May 17

Happy birthday, Ai Weiwei! 

Watch “The Art of Dissent,” a collaboration between Ai, activist Jacob Appelbaum, Laura Poitras, and Rhizome.

Studying Torah on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/67125142/via/aestheticpleasures

Aquarela sobre papel, 21x14,8cm , 2015.

Norman Rockwell’s ‘Saying Grace’ headlines the top 10 most expensive works of art sold at international auctions in December. 

Here’s a look at the top 10. 

8 About Art: Alanna Martinez

Your Twitter bio states “ask me about art & pasta anytime” so we must ask: For the love of pasta, what’s your favorite pasta dish?

Pasta is a beautifully versatile food, you can go so many ways with it, but my favorite pasta dish is about as simple as it gets. For the pasta itself: this dish goes best with shells (cocciolettte), campenelle, or penne. Add a whole lot of unsalted butter—at least a tablespoon—or you can substitute olive oil. Then, a generous amount of pecorino romano cheese. Then some pepper, and salt if you don’t think it’s salty enough already. Then enjoy! Simply put: pasta with butter and cheese. You can’t go wrong.

Do you have a personal background in the arts? How did you get started?

I grew up in the art world. My father is an artist, and I grew up in his studio. I went to an arts high school in Manhattan where I had a traditional conservatory-style education—drawing, oil painting, watercolor, basic anatomy, etc. After basically doing four years of art school in high school I was hesitant to do another four years at the college level, but I wasn’t ready to stop studying art all together, so I chose to attend a liberal arts school where I focused on photography, sculpture, and art history. While in undergrad, I ran the school’s visual arts publication, so after I graduated I looked for publishing opportunities in the art world and landed an internship at an art magazine. And that’s where I fell in love with art writing.

If so, what’s your favorite medium to work in?

I love the freedom of sculpture. In undergrad, I hit a point with photography where I started exploring video and installation in my work, and thankfully my professor suggested the following semester I sign up for a sculpture class to see if would open up new possibilities for my work. I was blown away by just how much it did.

Today, there are a lot of artists on Instagram. Are you seeing this trend? Any must follows you recommend?

Instagram is a great medium for artists to show off their work in the studio, and give people a view of how they see the world. I follow a lot of galleries, institutions, and artists, but I’ve also discovered a lot of comic artists and illustrators through Instagram and fallen in love with their work.

Are there any cities with an up and coming art market we should know about?

Plenty—though there are more up and coming regions than cities. Really, the Internet has widened the market exponentially. You can be a collector anywhere, and having a foothold at major fairs all over the world is becoming all the more important. Cities with multiple fairs, or new biennials are definitely ones to watch.

What’s your all-time favorite museum that you frequent?

The Met. It’s my favorite museum in the world. Something about it feels like home, even though there’s a massiveness to its collection and halls that makes me feel like I’ll never be able to know every inch of it. My favorite room holds the Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, painted by John Vanderlyn between 1818 and 1819. While it’s meant to transport you—through minute detail and photographic realism—to the palace’s gardens, there’s something surreal and otherworldly about the palate and wide-angled perspective.

Any can’t miss art events happening this summer in NYC?

Works by French artist Pierre Huyghe are all over the city this summer, and not to be missed. His roof garden commission is currently on view at the Met—where visitors will also have a breathtaking and unique view across Central Park—and his sculpture Untilled is up in MoMA’s sculpture garden, in addition to screenings of his film The Host and the Cloud. I’m also excited personally to see the Brooklyn Museum’s “Rise of Sneaker Culture” and “FAILE” exhibitions.

Any advice for those interesting in breaking into the art market as a writer?

See as much art as you can, read everything being published by outlets you’d want to write for, and remember that tearing people down is not a critic’s main job. Instead, be open to discovering what’s new and exciting and sharing that with others.

Three generations of Jewish women drink coffee in the grandmother’s home while incense is burned, Gondar, Ethiopia. A. Abbas.