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And like Van Gogh, Whistler and other art titans - including Picasso and Warhol - Hokusai is recognized by his last name alone. As Japanese Ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai and others began to infiltrate the European art scene, the response to Japanese aesthetics, pictorial flatness and creative use of negative space was instantaneous. By age 18, Hokusai had entered the studio of Ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunshö (1700-85), who was known for depicting Kabuki. Compositions Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the most iconic and widely reproduced images from all of art history. [Extracted from the article]

Dürer's works are among the earliest examples of watercolor painting as we know it today. Features The origins of watercolor painting can be traced as far back as the Prehistoric age, when Paleolithic humans first applied ochre and charcoal pigments in some fluid form to cave walls. The institution holds the world's largest collection of Dürer watercolors, as well as other works on paper by this masterful artist. THE CANTON MUSEUM OF ART For many museums, watercolor paintings represent only a small fraction of their collections, or the works seldom come out of safe-keeping for display. [Extracted from the article]

No longer considered part of the counterculture, tattooists are now called tattoo artists, their craft made safer and more accessible since the invention of the electric tattoo machine in 1938. In this work, the tattoo's design shares characteristics of a ukiyo-e wookblock print, thus raising the tattoo itself to the level of fine art. Photographer Lars Krutak (1971-), also known as the world's foremost tattoo anthropologist, explained the age-old allure of tattoos this way, "Our tattoos belong to us and no one else. [Extracted from the article]

BMA curator Oliver Shell, who worked directly on the current exhibition, says, "Richard Yarde is a national figure who got stuck in a regional context." CULTURE AND STORY The use of photographs as source material is evident in many of Yarde's portraits, but the photos served as a starting point rather than an end goal to be mimicked. The acclaimed Black artist Richard Yarde (1939-2011) defied that convention in his installation of life-size dance-hall figures, The Savoy (above), presented as a traveling exhibition organized by the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in 1982. [Extracted from the article]

It's interesting that in both the early work from Pompeii and this 18th-century painting, we can detect a leash or chain attached to the dog's neck, perhaps tying the hound to his master through eternity. The Ancient World One of the earliest and most well-preserved sculptures of a dog is an endearing terr-cotta piece from ancient Greece, Dog With Puppy (opposite), which is alternately titled Dog With Prey. Compositions The role dogs have played in human survival from our earliest days of hunting and dragging our prey home can't be overestimated. [Extracted from the article]

Compositions DANCE AS AN ART FORM encapsulates the social conventions and fashion of a particular point in time. Some restrictions against dancing lingered into the 16th century, when the highly regarded Dutch painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder (ca 1525-69) painted several peasant dance scenes. The human body in the act of dancing is regarded as a vehicle for worship, and it's widely understood that painters and sculptors cannot succeed without a basic knowledge of dance. [Extracted from the article]

This association sought to promote the work of professional women artists during a time when they weren't allowed to attend life-drawing classes alongside their male peers and a serious career as a practicing artist was nearly unthinkable. Compositions On May 10, 1998, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, in Greensburg, Pa., presented an exhibition honoring the Philadelphia Ten, a group of women painters and sculptors who collectively promoted and exhibited their work from 1917 to 1945. Talbot worked over a period of several years to learn whatever she could about the Philadelphia Ten, mostly through contact with artists' family members. [Extracted from the article]

Compositions We can trace the romantic roots of the mythic relationship between artists and their models back to the story of Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls in love with the life-sized statue of a beautiful woman he carved out of ivory. ALFRED STIEGLITZ AND GEORGIA O'KEEFFE American photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) obsessively photographed artist Georgia O'Keeffe (see Georgia O'Keeffe, above), especially when she was in her 20s and he in his mid-50s. This relationship resulted in the reverse of most artist/model/ muse stories in that the female model becomes a more famous artist than her mentor. [Extracted from the article]

Before encountering Beaux's work, artist Mary Sauer had always pointed to John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) as her favorite painter, and Beaux's exquisite brushwork could easily be mistaken for that of the prolific portrait painter. "She was a woman in a man's career, and every man around her idolized her", Georgia O'Keeffe AMERICAN: 1887-1986 NOMINATED BY FRAN BULL Not surprisingly, Georgia O'Keeffe, the widely celebrated and perhaps most famous female artist of the 20th century, was mentioned by several of the artists on our nominating panel. Multimedia artist Fran Bull admires O'Keeffe's work but concedes it's more her life story that particularly inspires her. "[It's] the example she sets for a woman artist in her fervent dedication to making art", Bull says. In her initial encounters with Vigée Le Brun, watercolor artist Soon Y. Warren found the artist's depictions of culture and society to have an almost otherworldly quality. [Extracted from the article]

Brooklyn-based artist Bisa Butler uses textiles and stitchery to make compelling African-American portraits that tell stories. The MFA, which holds one of the most significant collections of historical and contemporary quilts in America, purchased the quilt in anticipation of a comprehensive quilt exhibition currently scheduled to open in the fall of 2020. [Extracted from the article]