Sculpture

Bizarre

Art Only Exists Because Death Exists. Skulls in Art

Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated every year across Mexico. A far cry from the Western commercial horror-fest of Halloween, it is a glorious...

Candy Bedworth 2 November 2022

Niki de Saint Phalle surrounded by her sculptures painting Le Monde, c. 1981. Photograph by Laurent Codominas © 2010 Niki Charitable Art Foundation. Courtesy of Opera Gallery. Detail. Review

Find Paradise with Niki de Saint Phalle: Paradis Retrouvé in Opera Gallery

This week marks the birthday of Niki de Saint Phalle, the Franco-American artist who died in 2002. To celebrate the occasion, I visited a new...

Louisa Mahoney 29 October 2022

niki de saint phalle Women Artists

Niki de Saint Phalle and the Nana Statues

We all have seen somewhere these voluminous, beautifully dressed, and dancing sculptures. They are called Nanas, and they were made by a...

Wendy Gray 29 October 2022

Striding Lion, 604-562 BCE, glazed clay bricks, Processional Way, Babylon, Iraq, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Striding Lion from the Ishtar Gate

Striding Lion is a masterpiece of Mesopotamian art with monumental size and composition. It symbolizes the strength of King Nebuchadnezzar II and the...

James W Singer 14 October 2022

Ancient Egypt

The Bust of Nefertiti: Ancient Masterpiece or Genius Hoax?

On December 6, 1912, a team of excavators from the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, led by Ludwig Borchardt, unearthed a wonderful work of art. They...

Montaine Dumont 14 October 2022

Warrior and Attendants, 16th-17th century, brass, Royal Palace, Benin City, Nigeria, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, USA. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Warrior and Attendants of Benin

Warrior and Attendants is a masterpiece of Benin art. It encapsulates the beauty of Africa and its people. Black is beautiful. Black is...

James W Singer 6 October 2022

Medieval Art

The Wonder and Glory of Medieval Portable Shrines

For devoted Christians, a portable shrine provided an immediate and intimate way to connect to a higher power within a monastic space or the privacy...

Marga Patterson 3 October 2022

Pop Up, Andy Warhol, Campbells Cans Andy Swimming, Silver Factory, Poposition Press, 2022 Pop art

Andy Warhol: Pop Up Pop Art

A review of 'Silver Factory', first of a new series of pop up books from Poposition Press, celebrating artist Andy Warhol. Plus a whistle-stop tour of pop up history.

Candy Bedworth 29 September 2022

Ancient Art

Shocking Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color at the Met

Have you ever wondered how the Greco-Roman statues looked during antiquity? Thanks to the Met and its amazing team, you can now get a glimpse of the...

Erol Degirmenci 29 September 2022

Prehistoric Art

Sacred Signs – Prehistoric Sculpture

It seems that forming figurative shapes out of natural materials has always been with us. As humans developed, a bigger, more sophisticated brain...

Candy Bedworth 12 September 2022

Bizarre

Wild Women of the Waves – Art of Ships Figureheads

A figurehead is a carved and painted figure ornamenting the bow of a ship (that’s the front to us landlubbers!). For thousands of years, people...

Candy Bedworth 26 August 2022

Masterpiece Stories

The Boxer at Rest – Defeated Hellenistic Athlete

Coming face-to-face with a piece of art you’ve loved for years is a thrilling, exciting and oftentimes overwhelming experience. Such was the...

Nadine Waldmann 25 August 2022