Aztec art drew on the Mesoamerican past, citing works from the ancient cities of Teotihuacan and Tula to lend authority and legitimacy to the new empire. But this engagement with the past also provoked reflection on the inevitable end of empire and the cyclicality of time, themes that resonate as the five hundredth anniversary of the Spanish invasion of Mexico unfolds this year. In this illustrated lecture, Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago, discusses how Aztec art reflects this engagement with this historical past. This lecture delivered on October 31, 2019, was generously sponsored by the Boshell Foundation Lecture Fund.
Tag Archives: Art Videos
Paintings: How Comedian Steve Martin Looks At Abstract Art (MoMA Video)
In this episode of “The Way I See It,” actor and comedian Steve Martin looks at paintings by two early pioneers of American abstraction and takes us on a journey of seeing—shape and color transform into mountains, sky, and water. Find “The Way I See It” on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000…
Art Videos: Mary Osborn’s “Nameless And Friendless” Captured Women’s Rights Movement In 1850’s (Tate)
‘Nameless and Friendless’ was painted in 1857 by Emily Mary Osborn. It captures a single woman trying, and failing, to earn a living as an artist in Victorian England. In a trade traditionally occupied by men, she becomes nameless and friendless.
Osborn was actively involved in the campaign for women’s rights during the mid-19th century. She was supported by wealthy patrons, including Queen Victoria. But she used her position of power to help improve the lives of women like those depicted in her paintings.
Website: https://www.tate.org.uk/
Art Videos: “Édouard Manet and the Illusion of Effortlessness” (The Frick Collection NYC)
Claude Monet once remarked that Manet “always wanted his painting to look as if done at the first attempt,” but the truth was more complicated. Manet went to great lengths to perfect his work and even greater lengths to conceal the effort involved. From his earliest oil paintings to his late watercolors, this lecture contrasts Manet’s cultivation of a reputation for effortlessness with the arduous reality of his practice.
Emily A. Beeny, Associate Curator of Drawings, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
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