Artists and art history
Human evolution
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Why it took us thousands of years to see the colour violet
The colour violet was largely missing from art before the Impressionists, and is seen differently by different cultures. Why?
by Allen Tager
Beauty and aesthetics
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What happens if we make the Mona Lisa more symmetrical?
The Golden Ratio and symmetry are two universal rules of beauty. The problem is they conflict with one another
by Manil Suri
Artists and art history
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Gentileschi. Let us not allow sexual violence to define the artist
Artemisia Gentileschi’s body of work has been framed by her personal history. Her paintings should speak for themselves
by Eliza Apperly
Artists and art history
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Love the art, disgusted by the artist? Maybe philosophy can help
Rather than trying to leave behind beloved art by immoral artists, let philosophy offer you a model for engaging with it
by Erich Hatala Matthes
Artists and art history
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What art history reveals about the rise of anti-feminist women
How can anyone favour a patriarchal system that routinely harms them? On Susanna and the Elders and anti-feminist women
by Paula Keller
Music
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Bob Dylan turned American folk traditions into modern prophecy
Bob Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’ is the first truly modernist folk song: it reworks tradition into a prophetic warning
by Timothy Hampton
Philosophy of art
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To master the art of close looking, learn to hold time still
Visual literacy is a skillset that’s rarely taught, but it begins with learning how to look – and how to hold time still
by Grace Linden
Photography
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Struth’s unpeopled photos evoke the loneliness of urban life
Thomas Struth’s empty streets speak of an existential loneliness that is a shadowy but ever-present aspect of urban life
by Richard Deming
Artists and art history
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The art of Mughal India is best appreciated with all the senses
Experience the multiple layers of sensory pleasure and meaning conveyed through scented flowers in the art of Mughal India
by Bharti Lalwani & Nicolas Roth
Artists and art history
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The art of Ice Age children offers a tactile sense of the past
Small hands in dark caves: Ice Age art reveals the role of artistic expression and child’s play in ancient societies
by Izzy Wisher
Artists and art history
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The vibrating beingness of Seurat’s pointillist paintings
The pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat have a blurred, vibrating beingness that is a visual manifestation of emotion
by Summer Brennan
Psychiatry
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This isn’t just art, but a supercharged act of meaning-making
Psychiatric art is crammed with meaning yet it actively resists interpretation. This paradox lies at the heart of its appeal
by Shruti Ravindran