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Fresh perspectives on art, life, and current events. From deep dives to quick takes to insightful interviews, it’s the museum in conversation. Beyond the walls. Outside the frame. Around the world.
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"God particle" gets Nobel honors. But will it make for great art?
The discoverers of the Higgs boson, also known as the God particle, were recently co-awarded a Nobel Prize (at least, two of the researchers were—more than 3,000 worked on the project, including a University of Minnesota physics professor). The Higgs boson, if particle physics papers are not on your bedside table, is believed to enable ...
“God particle” gets Nobel honors. But will it make for great art?
The discoverers of the Higgs boson, also known as the God particle, were recently co-awarded a Nobel Prize (at least, two of the researchers were—more than 3,000 worked on the project, including a University of Minnesota physics professor). The Higgs boson, if particle physics papers are not on your bedside table, is believed to enable ...
Art Inspires: John Moe on the "punk rock" painter Francis Bacon
I didn’t realize that paintings could be punk rock until I saw the work of Francis Bacon. When I see something like Study for Portrait VI, I get the same sense of menace and terrible beauty that I got when I first heard the Sex Pistols. Bacon’s work is made more menacing and thrilling by ...
Art Inspires: John Moe on the “punk rock” painter Francis Bacon
I didn’t realize that paintings could be punk rock until I saw the work of Francis Bacon. When I see something like Study for Portrait VI, I get the same sense of menace and terrible beauty that I got when I first heard the Sex Pistols. Bacon’s work is made more menacing and thrilling by ...
At home with Bill Clark: audacious collector, bull-semen magnate, drone pilot
It sounds like a swarm of bees. It looks like a kid’s toy. It flies like a tipsy seagull. And it draws Bill Clark out of his office and into his almond grove. What’s all that buzzing? Clark, the 80-something collector and benefactor whose prodigious, eclectic taste in Japanese art will debut this weekend at ...
The national parks are closed, but these images will take you there
The animals get a break, while anyone with the misfortune to plan their own breaks in the national parks during the government shutdown will have to avail themselves of Jellystone Parks. Let the great national stress-out begin. To help, we’ve compiled some of the many images of national parks in the MIA collection, several of ...
The warrior face-off that has visitors writing
They face each other as fellow warriors from different, imaginary wars—or all wars. But one stands with arms akimbo, unarmed, a glittering but empty shell (made of dog tags, as closer inspection reveals). The other stands, if you can call it that, as a beaten, broken, but undaunted warrior, his shield raised to receive yet ...
Revenge porn's long and twisted artistic tradition
This week, with news of California attempting to curb the scourge of “revenge porn” on the Internet, my colleague Diane Richard posted a NewsFlash label beside an MIA painting with scandalous origins: Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae, created in 1799 by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson. Seems revenge porn isn’t so new, and you didn’t ...
Revenge porn’s long and twisted artistic tradition
This week, with news of California attempting to curb the scourge of “revenge porn” on the Internet, my colleague Diane Richard posted a NewsFlash label beside an MIA painting with scandalous origins: Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae, created in 1799 by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson. Seems revenge porn isn’t so new, and you didn’t ...
Adventures in Couriering, Part I
“If you turn over a rock, there’s a whole world underneath.” That pretty much sums up the work of a museum courier. Last week, I accompanied our painting by Balthus, The Living Room, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was the last courier to arrive. This is good, because it means that all the ...