Art and Museums
Shopping by Culture, Ancient Egypt
"The Ancient Egyptians were highly skilled in the use of herbs and spices for medicines, cooking, cosmetics, perfumes and many other purposes. Drawing on texts written by the Egyptians and their neighbours, and on works by classical authors and the Copts, Lise Manniche has reconstructed an herbal of 94 species of plants and trees used from before the pharaohs to the Coptic period. more »
The O’Keeffe show at the Whitney is the first to study, and celebrate, her abstract works
Nearly a dozen of these sexually charged photo-portraits are on display in a separate room at the Whitney. The walls are brown and echo the sepia tones of the prints, which are soft, and in the case of the nudes, hazy. Much to O’Keeffe’s chagrin, the nudes confirmed the nature of her relationship with Stieglitz (she was 34-years-old, and he was, shockingly, married and 57-years-old) and prompted the critics to respond to her paintings as “emblems of female sexuality,” the catalogue states. more »
The Famed and Controversial Sargent Murals at the Boston Public Library
"The painting that sparked the outrage was Sargent's 1919 work 'Synagogue,' in which the subject is depicted as a blindfolded old woman fallen to the floor, her crown toppled, the structure around her in ruins." more »
Madeleine Vionnet, Fashion Purist
"A socially progressive employer intenton improving working conditions within her business, Vionnetnonetheless geared her exceptional designs to an elite clientele.As was the case of many designers during the Roaring Twenties,she was not concerned with democratizing fashion. Her amazingtechnical skills paved the way for sartorial renewal based oncomplex structural experimentation." more »