Paintings; Allusions; Anti-Americanism; Politics & government; Political issues; Capitalism; Imperialism; Wealth; Corruption; Poverty; Emigration & immigration; Social classes; Economic & social conditions; Domestic life; Child labor;...
"This enormous, collage-like painting is crammed with anti-American allusions. An electric chair sits on the plinth at the top center (the Rosenbergs were electrocuted as Russian spies in 1953). A GI nonchalantly reads a pornographic magazine....
"With its somewhat distant-looking quality and distinctive crown of olive leaves, this statue is most likely a memorial portrait. Although the head and body originally came from two separate statues, they are chronologically consistent. The...
"The nose, chin, and fingers on the right hand and the complete left hand are modern. This exceptionally well-preserved statue is striking for its elegant pose and the complexity of the garment and hairstyle. The very young girl represented...
"This mosaic decorated the bottom of a shallow pool […]. The hole at its center belonged to a water jet. […] Its border consists of a band of twisted ribbon between plain bands. The emblema shows one of the popular episodes related to the...
“One of the finest – and most controversial – works of third-century relief sculpture is the fragmentary sarcophagus found at Acilia, near Rome. It is an example of a later form of Roman coffin that art historians call the lenos (bathtub)...
“One of the finest – and most controversial – works of third-century relief sculpture is the fragmentary sarcophagus found at Acilia, near Rome. It is an example of a later form of Roman coffin that art historians call the lenos (bathtub)...
Sculpture; Portraits; Men; Emperors; Rulers; People associated with politics & government; Military officers; Military personnel; People associated with military activities; Gestures; Clothing & dress; Hairstyles; Military uniforms;...
"This armored statue was discovered in the ancient city of Gabii. […] The portrait of Trajan, set on a modern neck, did not belong to the statue; it was furnished in 1793 by Vincenzo Pacetti, who produced this reconstituted piece for the...
Sculpture; Portraits; Women; Empresses; Princesses; Rulers; People associated with politics & government; Upper class; Nobility; Clothing & dress; Hairstyles
Discovered near Tivoli (Italy).
"Cut from a single block of marble, this bust of Faustina the Younger is notable for its excellent state of preservation, despite a few chips on the face, some damage to the drapery, and the modern restoration...
Performance art; Video recording; Motion pictures; Film stills; Myths; Fairy tales; Allusions; Artificial limbs; Artists; Women; Hairstyles; Posing; Interiors; Rooms & spaces; Architectural elements; Walls; Windows
Film still from recorded performance. "Rebecca Horn's early performances involved her strapping surreal prostheses to her body or wearing elaborate costumes. The allusions to fairy tale and myth were unmistakable but rarely specific. Since...
"Alongside his own production of visual poetry, which took the form of silkscreen prints as well as inscribed objects, Finlay was significant for his involvement in the 'small press' publishing activities associated with the alternative poetry...
Photograph of exhibition installation, ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), London, September-October 1953; "In this early Independent Group exhibition photographs of varying sizes were attached to the gallery walls. Others were suspended by...
Galvanized steel and concrete. "Deacon's organically related forms often derive from sources in the Bible, poetry, fairy stories, and figures of speech. In the two versions of the laminated wood sculpture For Those Who Have Ears (1982-3), for...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Abstract paintings; Abstract works
"In the mid-1980s Richter produced abstract paintings as well as realist 'photo-paintings'. […] he appeared here to be recapitulating the ideological options underpinning postwar modernism in so far as his own transplantation from Eastern to...
Discovered in Pompeii.
"With its fluted shaft and slightly flared bottom, the candelabrum rests on a tripod shaped like lion's paws, partially covered by a double plant-motif sheath. Three palmettes, one broken, ornament the space between the...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Mixed media; Allusions; Symbols; Fantasy; Communication; Fear; Disgrace; Anxiety; Distress; Loneliness; Despair; Lust; Sex; Relations between the sexes; Body parts; Human body; Genitals; Hands; Fingers; Beaches
"The painting they refused to show in Barcelona." (Caption); "One of the most sexually provocative of the summer's paintings was Dialogue on the Beach, whose much later title, Unsatisfied Desires, clarifies its theme. The hand on the...
"The ever-present, brooding presence of Lorca [Federico García Lorca]." (Caption); "That Lorca continued to be on Dali's mind as he worked on Bacchanale is confirmed by a painting done during these months at La Pausa, The Great...
"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...
First version; "Dali's atomic variation on the Assumption, with Gala as tutelary goddess of Port Lligat." (Caption); Dali's first 'religious painting', designed to ingratiate himself with Church and State, was The Madonna of Port Lligat,...
"Gala-Leda rendered 'in accordance with the modern "nothing touches" theory of intra-atomic physica' (Dali)." (Caption); Dali himself was only too happy to admit his debt to Gala. In the early 1930s he had begun to sign his...
