Art

(updated 5 November 2001)

I'm one of those pointy-headed intellectuals that so many Americans have a bias against. I don't care about that, though; any country that makes Pauly Shore a success and thinks the "croissanwich" is somehow clever, desirable, or good to eat is in obvious need of a good intellectual reboot.

Anyhow. I've got a taste for some of the higher things in life. For this I will not apologize. High Art--that is, painting, sculpture, and those things that have always been given most value in schools--rocks. The following is a set of links not only to images of High Art, but also to links to other High Art sites, and to some very good museums.

Images

A set of links to collections of images, and the occasional piece of text.

African Art: Aesthetics and Meaning African art has never gotten its due from The Academy (and, no, I'm not talking about the ninnies who vote for the Oscars, and always get it wrong). Most of us never learn much about African art when we're growing up; we're exposed to the glories of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and (if we're lucky) Vermeer. But few of us ever see, in any supervised, academic fashion, the wonderful sculpture and art of so many different African peoples. This site is a good introduction to not just the artistic efforts of various peoples of the continent from which humanity sprang, but also has some good explanatory essays.
NEW The Age of King Charles V 1,000 illuminations from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Albrecht Durer Glee! Durer's incredible work online!
ANU Art History Top Level Menu Page The site of the Australian National University. Which may feel like a bad joke, but our Antipodean friends have been, over the past twenty years, quietly producing some very nice culture. I say "quietly" because we Americans never hear about these things. The ANU site is, unfortunately, a pay site, but they do have some images for free, and they're well worth looking at.
* Artcyclopedia A "guide to museum-quality art on the Internet." Way cool!
Asian Arts As with African art, Asian art rarely gets its due in American schooling. You might ascribe this to prejudice, or--if you're more generous--to the American educational system giving an undue weight to Western art. Asian Arts is an "on-line journal for the study and exhibition of the arts of Asia." Some very nice images and articles that will, I hope, give you a greater appreciation for art that doesn't come from Europe.
The Book of Kells Several images from the Irish illuminated manuscript.
Creating French Culture: Monarchs and Monasteries Images and text on French culture from the Middle Ages.
Gargoyles and Grotesques - Carved in Stone It takes a special, warped sort of person to really appreciate gargoyles. That type of person is me--and, apparently, the folks who put together this site, an enjoyable gallery of gargoyle images.
Grotesque in art This site is "an exhibit of visual art that exposes and explores various artists' treatments of the principal anxieties of modern man." It's got some very compelling and very disturbing imagery. Well worth your time to visit.
The Gutenberg Bible Hey, it's online! What a world....
Hokusai The great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) will be most familiar to Western audiences for his memorable painting of a tidal wave, but he did a lot more than that. This site has a brief (but concise) biography of him as well as a nice selection of 10 images of Hokusai's paintings.
A Hundred Highlights From the Koninklijke Bibliotheek The Knoninklijke Bibliotheek is the National Library of the Netherlands, and this site has a number of highlights from it. Well worth visiting.
Paintings of Vermeer Johannes Vermeer is one of my faves, not just for his mastery of facial expression but also because of his use of light and shadow. This site has a bunch of images of his work as well as information on him and links to other Vermeer sites on the web.
Qi BaiShi Paintings Seven images from the Chinese painter Qi Bai-Shi (1863-1957).
Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry Les Tres Riches Heures is one of the great medieval Book of Hours (which, if you don't want what that is, you shouldn't be here, you should be out learning about medieval life). This site explains about that, about Les Tres Riches Heures, and gives twelve images from the book, one for each month.
World Art Treasures This is a good one. They've put together images of & links to various pieces of art and to artists from around the world--everything from Borobudor to Botticelli.

Museums & Galleries

A selection of some really good museums and galleries.

Bodleian Library Slide collections of some of the Bodleian Library's manuscripts.
British Museum home page The new and improved (and much quicker to connect to) site of the British Museum.
British Museum of Antiquities Mmmmm...British Museums of Antiquities....
Chesley Bonestell Gallery An interactive art gallery of Mr. Bonestell's paintings, which are space-oriented and quite nice.
Comic Art & Graffix Gallery A "virtual museum" of comic book art, some of which is really rather nice.
FAMSF-Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco San Francisco's finest--and quite fine it is, too.
The Holy See Come and see the art that the exploiters at the Vatican got off the sweat and blood and misery of countless millions of people.
The Image of France Say what you will about the French--and I've certainly said a lot about them over the years--but they've still produced some nice art. This is an index of printed French imagery, currently up to about 1822.
The Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology Some nice Egyptian art here.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art It's the Met. Like the Louvre and the Smithsonian, a must-have.
Musee du Louvre Hey, it's the Louvre; if you're going to have an assemblage of museum links, you have to have one to the Louvre. I mean, you gotta.
The Museum of Bad Art I love this place. "The Museum of Bad Art is a community-based, private institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms and in all its glory."
Museum of Web Art A very worthy attempt, and well worth your time to visit.
The National Museum of American Illustration "Original artworks from the `Golden Age of American Illustration'," including artists like Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, and Howard Pyle. Needless to say, very cool.
Nicholas Roerich Museum The web site of a notable illustrator of the first half of the twentieth century.
Oriental Institute Museum Chicago might be a detestable, oozing sore of a city, but it does have some cultural advantages, and the Oriental Institute, and its Museum, is one of them. Some very tasty exhibition brochures are accessible here.
Peabody Essex Museum Long ago and far away, Salem (Massachusetts) was a major whaling port, and did quite well economically because of it. That led to the creation of the Peabody Essex Museum, so that the products of non-American cultures that made their way back to Massachusetts would have a place to stay. The Essex just might be the best museum nobody's ever heard of.
Vatican Exhibit Rome Reborn The online portion of an exhibit on how Rome Was Reborn, etc.
Welcome to the Whitney Museum of American Art Ah, the Whitney. Spent many enjoyable hours there, and this is a good site for attracting people to them.

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