Sep 22 2026
Imagine Halloween sometime around 1962. A plastic vampire mask waits on the kitchen table, a cardboard skeleton hangs crookedly on the wall, and somewhere in the house a television set glows in the dark as Frankenstein or Dracula begins after the late news. At the drugstore, monster magazines compete for attention with comic books, while …
Sep 16 2026
Few films look quite like The Color of Pomegranates. Sergei Parajanov’s extraordinary work feels less like a conventional motion picture than an illuminated manuscript brought to life. Figures stand inside carefully arranged compositions. Books flutter in the wind. Pomegranates bleed their juice onto pale fabric. Carpets, fruit, lace, stone, water, animals, religious objects, and human …
Sep 15 2026
Every September 15 offers an opportunity to celebrate Yuri Norstein, the Soviet and Russian animator whose relatively small body of films has had an influence far beyond its size. Born on September 15, 1941, Norstein became one of the great artists of world animation through films that seem almost impossible to separate from dreams, memory, …
Sep 14 2026
In his essay of the “Cultures of Tiki,” Scott Lukas noted that in modern presentations of Tiki cultures that had little to do with Tiki of the past like the soft surf culture and the former car culture. These are now becoming a part of the Tiki culture. This is particularly true of surf music, …
Sep 05 2026
Born on September 5, 1924, Frank Armitage followed an artistic path that was anything but ordinary. Over the course of his long career, the Australian-born artist moved from studying the monumental murals of Mexico to painting backgrounds for some of Walt Disney’s most famous animated films, creating imagery for the science-fiction classic Fantastic Voyage, designing …
Aug 20 2026
Born on August 20, 1910, in Kirkkonummi, Finland, Eero Saarinen became one of the architects who gave mid-century America its most memorable vision of the future. The soaring Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the sweeping TWA Flight Center at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, the dramatic terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport, and …
Aug 11 2026
Born on August 11, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, Walter H. Williams became one of the most distinctive African American expatriate artists of the postwar era. A painter, printmaker, and ceramicist, Williams created an instantly recognizable visual world populated by Black children, sunflowers, butterflies, birds, modest houses, cotton fields, and glowing suns. At first glance, …
Aug 10 2026
Born Veronica Yvette Bennett on August 10, 1943, in New York City, Ronnie Spector became one of the most recognizable voices and images of the 1960s. As the lead singer of the Ronettes, she helped create records that combined teenage longing, streetwise confidence, enormous orchestral production, and a visual style that was every bit as …
Aug 07 2026
Born on this day, August 7, 1932, in Schiedam, Netherlands, Rien Poortvliet became one of the most recognizable Dutch illustrators of the twentieth century. His richly detailed paintings and drawings celebrated wildlife, rural traditions, history, family life, and an imaginary world populated by remarkably convincing gnomes. Whether he was painting a fox disappearing into the …
Jul 06 2026
Born on this day, July 6, 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Frida Kahlo created some of the most recognizable paintings of the 20th century. Her self-portraits, vivid colors, symbolic imagery, and unflinching explorations of identity made her an artist whose work seems intensely personal while reaching far beyond the circumstances of her own life. Kahlo …
