What do you notice when you look at a painting? Perhaps the composition strikes you first—the shapes, the colors, the lines. You might notice the depth created by thick or thin brush strokes. Then your field of vision zooms out and you notice the painting’s frame. Is it simple and unadorned, drawing attention not to  ...

Owariya Yonejiro was born in 1839 in old Edo, now Tokyo, into a way of life on its way out. His father, a wealthy merchant, had essentially purchased samurai status, becoming part of the ruling class in its waning decades of power. At 11, he was apprenticed to one of the last great masters of  ...

Since publishing his “Six Habits of Highly Empathetic People” in 2012, and elaborating on them soon after in Empathy: Why it Matters and How to Get It, Roman Krznaric has become a kind of empathy whisperer. The social philosopher, a founding faculty member of The School of Life in London, has been an empathy advisor  ...

This week, Mia hosts a convening of museums. Some will come from across the river, others from across the ocean. It will be the third meeting of an initiative called MASS Action (Museums as Site for Social Action), a movement that intends to reshape the model of what a 21st-century museum can be. But what  ...

The first official Minneapolis Print & Drawing Fair was held at Mia in 1993, when Bill Clinton was president, the Internet was largely limited to college campuses, and, more to the point, there were no Twin Cities galleries dedicated to selling art prints. Much has changed—except for the last point. The only place in Minnesota  ...

Throughout his long career, encompassing most of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso tried his hand in almost all art media. Of these artistic pursuits, printmaking absorbed much of his attention: he produced 2,430 images. But apart from his prolific output, his standing as one of the greatest printmakers of all time—in a league with Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt,  ...

Rowan and Bly Pope live in a duplex they own on the east side of St. Paul, near Maplewood. Not separately, in each apartment, but together in side-by-side bedrooms, which also serve as their art studios. Their food in the refrigerator is neatly divided: Rowan on one side, Bly on the other. Special foods are  ...

For most of the 20th century, Chicago was the second-largest city in the United States, lagging only New York. The Windy City. The City of Big Shoulders. The Second City, as it’s still sometimes called, despite losing that title to Los Angeles in 1984. But of all the ways that Chicago was similar to New  ...

The epitome of the unappreciated artist, Vincent van Gogh is famous for missing out on the fame and fortune that followed his death. Except that isn’t true, according to new research that places 10 of his paintings in an exhibition so prominent it was visited by the French president in 1890, four months before van  ...

When I went to my first escape room, I was a little unclear about what exactly I was supposed to do. As two experienced puzzlers began to scour the room for clues, on bookshelves and in drawers, I looked around wondering when someone was going to tell me how to help. Had I been on  ...