"Dali and Gala had every reason to be grateful to America, which had showered them with dollars. Here, as Columbus, the painter kneels on the shore, holding aloft a silver crucifix. Gala appears once more as Virgin Mary, on the banner."...
Sculpture; Bas-reliefs; Men; Military personnel; Soldiers; Military officers; People associated with military activities; Guards; Bodyguards; People associated with health & safety; Clothing & dress; Military uniforms; Uniforms; Belts...
"This piece depicts three soldiers in high relief in the foreground and two others, accompanied by a standard bearer, in bas-relief behind. The plaque's original upright is preserved in the lower right; the upright on the left is modern. As...
"The painting belonged to Edward James. Surely one of Dali's finest double images." (Caption); "Dali said that The Great Paranoiac had been conceived after a discussion with Josep María Sert about Arcimboldo, and that the...
"The painting belonged to Edward James. The 'paranoiac-critical town' is composed of elements principally from Cadaqués and Palamós." (Caption); "The reference was to Outskirts of the Paranoiac-Critical Town, one of Dali's finest...
"Dali's variation on Paolo Uccello's work of the same title, this is probably his most sacrilegious painting." (Caption); The Profanation of the Host […] is one of Dali's most sacrilegious paintings (although later he tried to exonerate...
"Whilst implicitly acknowledging the Surrealism of [Joseph] Cornell, Arman possibly evokes [Roland] Barthes's mournful vision of commodified toys as expressed in the latter's book Mythologies (1957). Barthes wrote that in the consumerist era,...
"Durham's symbolic recoding of the imagery of modern America in the terms of its native Indians is interesting in relation to Joseph Beuys's use of Indian iconography for purposes of symbolic retribution. As a modernist, Beuys assumed his work...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Portrait paintings; Allegorical paintings; Allegories; Symbols; Irony; Allusions; Politics & government; Economic & political systems; Economics; Political elections; Political campaigns; Rooms & spaces;...
"In this painting Haacke's use of allegorical detail has an ironic air of academic exactitude. For instance, the marble sculpture of Pandora, pointedly placed on the Victorian table next to Margaret Thatcher, is based on one produced in 1890...
"This painting deliberately combines a host of allusions to Spanish culture such as the stark black/white contrasts of Goya, Velasquez, and Picasso, the Spanish poet Lorca's lament to a dead bullfighter, 'Llanto por Ignacio Jánchez mejías',...
Performance art; Video recording; Film stills; Men; Artists; Backs (Anatomy); Dance; Locomotion; Human locomotion; Geometry
"Carried out for the camera alone, Nauman's performances of the late 1960s often dealt with the artist's confinement in his studio. This was ironic given that elsewhere art was shrugging off its traditional solipsism and taking to the streets....
Paintings; Oil paintings; Civil wars; War; Politics & government; Political issues; Dictators; Nazis; Fascism; Civilization; Bombings; Military tactics; War destruction & pillage; Death; Dismemberment; Body parts; Mental states; Despair;...
"In this monumental work of 1937, Guernica, Picasso combined Analytic and Synthetic Cubist forms with several traditional motifs, juxtaposing them in a new Surrealist way. The combination serves the political message of the painting - namely,...
Detail of a watercolor copy of a wall painting. "More remarkable still is a painting in one of the older rooms at Çatal Höyük that generally has been acclaimed as the world's first landscape (a picture of a natural setting in its own right,...
"For their palace walls the Assyrian kings commissioned extensive series of narrative reliefs exalting royal power and piety. The sculptures record not only battlefield victories but also the slaying of wild animals. […] The degree of...
Sculpture; Men; Athletes; People associated with entertainment & sports; Nudes; Genitals; Muscles; Clothing & dress; Capes (Clothing); Headbands (Headgear); Headgear; Victories; Tree stumps; Trees; Archaeological sites; Ruins; Expedition...
Supported by two workers from Mykonos. “Island marble. Found in the building known conventionally as the House of the Diadoumenos, on Delos, in 1894. The hands are missing. The tip of the nose is restored. The youth is depicted nude, frontally,...
Sculpture; Equestrian statues; Metalwork; Jockeys; People associated with entertainment & sports; Boys; Youth; Children; Clothing & dress; Footwear; Sandals; Animals; Horses; Horseback riding; Bareback riding; Riding; Sitting; Gestures;...
"Ridden by the young Jockey, the restored horse is in full gallop. […] It is an original statue group dating from about 140 BC." (Captions, pp. 352-353); "Found in the sea off Cape Artemision, Euboea, and retrieved in pieces in...
"In this view, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, with its famous Hanging Gardens, can be seen just behind and to the right of the Ishtar Gate, to the west of the Processional Way. The Marduk Ziggurat looms up in the far distance on the east...
