My Recent Media Diet, the Resistance Edition

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these but I’m gonna skip the apologies and get right into it. Here’s a list of what I’ve been reading, watching, listening to, and experiencing over the past several months. Let us know what movies, books, art, TV, music, etc. you’ve been enjoying in the comments below!

Dinosaur. It’s a huge pigeon on the High Line — what else do you need to know? (A-)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Entertaining and engaging. It’ll make a good TV series. (B+)

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I hadn’t seen this in several years but I still knew all the words. (A-)

Watch video on YouTube.

My Brilliant Friend (season four). If there’s one thing I’ve watched in the past several years that I wish had gotten more attention from viewers, critics, and awards panels, it’s this wonderful show. (A+)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow might be the most perfectly cast role in the history of cinema. Great story too. This movie surprised me when I saw it in the theater in 2003 and it’s still in the top tier of action/adventure movies. (A)

Andor (season one). A rewatch to prep for season two. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about this show the first time around, but this second viewing was a revelation. Andor is easily the best Star Wars thing since Empire. (A+)

Galleria Borghese. As previously discussed, the Bernini sculptures were a highlight of the summer. (A+)

Caravaggio 2025. Fantastic exhibition. (A)

The vivid blue color of the Mediterranean. (A+)

La Vita è Un Mozzico. We waited for an hour for sandwiches and it was probably worth it? (A)

Black Doves. British spy thriller? Keira Knightley? Ben Whishaw? Twist my arm. (B+)

Captain America: Brave New World. I’m sorry Sam Wilson / Anthony Mackie, there’s a “we have the Avengers at home” vibe here that’s hard to shake. (B)

Watch video on YouTube.

Music to Refine To: A Remix Companion to Severance. I love this album; one of my favorite things of the past several months. (A+)

Mickey 17. It was fine? I was distracted while watching it in the theater, which is never a good sign. My favorite Bong Joon Ho film is still Snowpiercer. (B)

Amy Sherald: American Sublime. Absolutely fantastic. (A+)

The French Dispatch. This has quietly become a favorite of mine among Anderson’s films. (A)

The Royal Tenenbaums. However, this is still my favorite. (A+)

Watch video on YouTube.

Paris Is Burning. Classic documentary of a bygone NYC era & a subculture that is now both flourishing and threatened. (A-)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season two). I love these characters, always the sign of a good Trek. The crossover episode with Lower Decks was delightful even though I’ve not watched any of the animated series yet. The musical episode I liked less (not a showtunes guy) but I appreciated the experimentation. Bring on the Muppet episode. (A)

Severance (season two). Perhaps not as good as the first season — there was a lot in the mid-season episodes that didn’t land for me. Still, I always watched when a new episode dropped. (A-)

Watch video on YouTube.

Army of Shadows. Part of the unplanned resistance film festival I’ve been screening for myself recently. Not quite as good as I remembered it, but it’s nice to watch something that doesn’t just lay everything out on a platter for you so you can emote properly. (A-)

Best in Show. So many lines from this that I use in my daily life. (A-)

The 99% Invisible Breakdown: The Power Broker. This is such a good series with fantastic guests about a legendary book. Who knew that Roman Mars was such a gigglepuss though? (A)

Johnny English. I didn’t find this quite as delightful as my family does. I prefer Mr. Bean. (B+)

Paddington in Peru. Not quite the magic of the first two, but entertaining. (B)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have likely said this before, but while Raiders is likely the best Indy movie, Last Crusade is my favorite (probably due to Tom Stoppard’s heavy rewrite of the script). (A+)

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. It’s interesting to watch the original trilogy having seen so many subsequent movies & TV series.

Ocean’s Twelve. The dancing lasers scene is completely ridiculous. (A)

Watch video on YouTube.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Well, I wasn’t expecting a critique of AI and the role of technology in society from this animated feature, but maybe I should have? (B+)

A Complete Unknown. Liked this more than I thought I would. (A-)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Just a wonderful book — witty and fun. (A)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Fantastic book. Listen to the audiobook version if you can — Scott Brick’s narration elevates the story. (A)

A Quiet Place: Day One. I only watched this because I was on a plane. (B)

Severance (season one). After watching the second season, I rewatched season one. There was apparently much I missed the first time around. (A-)

Watch video on YouTube.

Black Bag. Soderbergh is always worth watching, especially when he dips into Ocean’s Eleven territory — although this was more serious. (A-)

A Minecraft Movie. The first half was tolerable, enjoyable even. And then not so much. (C+)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Watched this in the theater for the 20th anniversary. There are some good bits in here, but some of the acting really stinks. Folks in the theater cheered when Anakin slaughtered the younglings, which is probably some sort of meme that I don’t want to know about. (B+)

Watch video on YouTube.

Sinners. I loved this movie. (A+)

Thunderbolts*. Thought I would like this more than I did. (B)

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The last scene is a masterclass in not having the faintest idea how to end a movie. (B+)

Andor (season two). Only a slight dip from season one. Overall, the series was a brilliant look at radicalization, the messiness of rebellion, and the oppressive flatness of authoritarianism. (A+)

There There by Tommy Orange. Devastating. (A-)

The Fear of Never Landing. Good album to chill out to by Marconi Union, who previously brought you the most relaxing song in the world. (A-)

Novocaine. This was bad. (D+)

Glass Onion. More Benoit Blanc mysteries please — I love watching Daniel Craig and his CSI: KFC accent chewing scenery. (A-)

The Gorge. Half of this was great and the other half was just another pseudo-horror action thing. (B-)

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Marvelous. (A)

Andor: The Rogue One Arc. This fan edit of Rogue One in the style of a three-episode Andor arc is as Gilroy-esque a cut as you’re ever going to get. (A-)

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. I had been kinda ambivalent about the M:I movies, but Fallout converted me, so now I’m slowly making my way back through the back catalog. (B+)

Via Carota. Best meal I’ve had in a long time. The tagliatelle was better than any pasta dish I had during my trip to Rome — it’s true, don’t @ me! And the roast chicken was perfect. (A+)

V for Vendetta. Underrated. (A-)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. I’m going to tell you the embarrassing truth: I thought this was about actual samurai and perhaps related to the Tom Cruise movie. It is very much not. I gave it a real shot but ended up abandoning it about halfway through. (C)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Still a marvel of animated creativity. (A)

The Phoenician Scheme. Didn’t vibe with this at all. (B-)

Downhill mountain biking. This is giving me so much life right now. (A+)

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Not my favorite W&G but still. (B+)

F1. Like Top Gun: Maverick crossed with Ford v Ferarri but Cruise and Bale played the aging outsider role much better than Pitt. Is Pitt even a good actor or is he just extremely charismatic? (B+)

Superman. I thought it was fine but didn’t like it as much as others seemed to. Better than anything Zach Snyder did for DC though. (B)

Watch video on YouTube.

Shōgun. Rewatch with my son. Just an incredible show all the way around. (A+)

The Last of Us (season two). This show was always fighting an uphill battle with me — I don’t like zombie media and I dislike characters (Ellie!) who wouldn’t survive/thrive in the situations that they’re in with their personalities & characteristics. And I finally won. (C+)

The Handmaid’s Tale (season six). *sigh* No idea why I started watching (and then finished) this season; I’m a sucker for closure I guess. (C)

Nintendo Switch 2. I bought this to play Kart with my kids and also for a better Fortnite experience. So far, so good. (B+)

Mario Kart World. I haven’t played a ton of this, but it’s good so far. Free roam mode is pretty fun. I’ve gotta write up my Kart wishlist sometime…Nintendo only checked off one or two items in World. (B+)

Sargent and Paris. Caught this on the very last day of the show and hoo boy was it crowded. (A- for the show, C+ for the crowds)

Let God Sort Em Out. Need to listen to this one a few more times but I’m liking it so far. (B+)

Right now, I’m watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season three, listening to Deacon King Kong on audiobook (fantastic, a lock for an A+), rewatching Wandavision, and picking at Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane.

Past installments of my media diet are available here. What good things have you watched, read, or listened to lately?

• art
• books
• food
• media diet
• movies
• music
• podcasts
• travel
• TV
• video

Rival Consoles — Soft Gradient Beckons

Watch video on YouTube.

I love the look of this black & white animated video made by Anthony Dickenson from thousands of hand-painted frames for Rival Consoles’ song Soft Gradient Beckons. Stick around after the song ends for a behind-the-scenes look at how it was made.

If I plan too much, it’s often disappointing. It’s much nicer if I just let it go the way it wants to go. But obviously sometimes it just doesn’t work and, you know, that’s okay. Sometimes, the mistakes are the bits that really reveal kind of new techniques. I love these little moments of imperfection. Otherwise, you know, you might as well just build it in AI.

The skateboard dolly! (via colossal)

• animation
• Anthony Dickenson
• art
• music
• Rival Consoles
• video

Intricate Drawings by Shunshun

I am totally smitten with the intricate drawings of Japanese artist Shunshun. It’s worth clicking through to see them in detail. Here’s a look at his process:

Watch video on YouTube.

You can follow Shunshun on Instagram.

• art
• Shunshun

The Best Brushes Are the Ones You Make Yourself

Watch video on YouTube.

Wanting to get away from manufactured perfection, artist Wang Mansheng makes his own paint brushes.

Manufactured things are, you know, have a certain form. Like a manufactured brush; they’re all really fine. The factory trying to make as fine as they could, but when you use it, all the lines come out smooth and beautiful. But sometimes, I think it’s too perfect, because I really love the rough surface of a rock or the big tree trunk.

Wang’s work is currently on display at The Huntington near LA in San Marino, CA.

• art
• video
• Wang Mansheng

A Great Art Explained Book? Sign Me Up!

Ah, this is awesome: Great Art Explained is one of my favorite YouTube channels and there’s a book version coming out in the fall.

Art can be thrilling, and resonate on a deep personal level. It is how you view the work, place it in context and understand its history that makes an artwork truly come alive.

A fresh approach to a classic subject, James Payne’s no-nonsense analysis sheds new light on 30 masterpieces from around the globe and reveals what makes them truly timeless works of art.

Each chapter delves into not only the art itself but also the artist’s life, as well as the work’s place in their wider oeuvre; in other words, what makes it “great.”

You can preorder Great Art Explained from Bookshop or Amazon.

• art
• art school
• books
• Great Art Explained
• James Payne

“He Painted Bugs Like Jewels”

Watch video on YouTube.

In a collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, Evan Puschak made a video about 16th-century Dutch artist (and all-around polymath) Joris Hoefnagel, who painted some of the first dedicated and detailed images of insects in the world. His paintings were so accurate that if he’d lived 200 years later, you would have called him a naturalist.

I love how some of the caterpillars in the last image are crawling along the “frame” of the painting — that strikes me as a modern flourish.

From The Marvelous Details of Joris Hoefnagel’s Animal and Insect Studies:

These watercolors served as sources for a series of 52 prints engraved by Hoefnagel’s teenage son, Jacob. That series, Archetypes and Studies, offered the earliest printed images of dozens of species.

The relatively cheap prints enabled little beasts to multiply and crawl out into the world. They inspired a broader interest and study of nature which continues today.

Some of Hoefnagel’s insect images are on display at the NGA in the Little Beasts exhibition, which runs through Nov 2, 2025.

• art
• art school
• Evan Puschak
• Joris Hoefnagel
• video

Great Art Explained: Jackson Pollock

Watch video on YouTube.

Watch video on YouTube.

The fantastic art history YouTube channel Great Art Explained has a great two-episode series on Jackson Pollock.

In Part One of my film I look at how, post World War Two, the art scene shifted from Paris to New York. How America was searching for “The Great American painter”, and why he is so loved and hated at the same time. I look at just what Abstract Expressionism means, how we can “read it”, and I look at the myths surrounding Pollock and modern art itself. I also look at his influences ranging from Mexican sand Painting, to the Regionalist art movement, to Picasso and the modernists.

In Part Two of my film I look at how fame affected Jackson Pollock, and how alcohol destroyed his relationships. I look at the science behind why we are so affected by his work, and I also look at a lesser known story, of how art became an unlikely player in the Cold War and the global contest of ideas. How Abstract Expressionism was enlisted as an unknowing agent in a shadowy propaganda war, bankrolled by the CIA, to sell the story of freedom… and capitalism.

• art
• art school
• Jackson Pollock
• James Payne
• video

How Christoph Niemann Uses AI in His Work

This is a thoughtful piece from artist & illustrator Christoph Niemann about how he’s come to use AI (tactically, sparingly) in his work: Sketched Out: An Illustrator Confronts His Fears About A.I. Art.

Creating art is a nonlinear process. I start with a rough goal. But then I head into dead ends and get lost or stuck. The secret to my process is to be on high alert in this deep jungle for unexpected twists and turns, because this is where a new idea is born. I can’t make art when I’m excluded from the most crucial moments.

But also:

When I first learned about computer tools in art school, I was elated. All of a sudden I was able to set type, draw animations, create clean vector graphics. Since then, I’ve experimented with every new digital tool available. Despite my wariness of AI, I’ve found some good uses for it.

Something as seemingly simple as “Fill a 10x20 document with circles of random sizes between 1 and 2 inches without using a repeating pattern” would take days using traditional digital tools. Now, by using ChatGPT to code a script, I can have different versions in minutes.

(thx, andy)

• art
• artificial intelligence
• Christoph Niemann

Play Along With This Gestural Verbing Interactive Video

Watch video on YouTube.

I love this interactive video at Design Ah! Exhibition Neo at Tokyo Node. The display introduces the audience to a series of simple hand gestures, followed by some outcomes of their performance, e.g. a squeezing motion leading to soapy spray on a window or toothpaste on a toothbrush. This looks like it would be super fun in person.

The exhibition is a real-life version of Design Ah!, a Japanese show about design for kids.

Set to catchy music, Japanese Hiragana characters danced across the screen for a few minutes. Then came a line animation wordlessly designing and redesigning a parking lot. Next was stop motion. Electronic devices came apart. As the camera zoomed out, the individual parts lined up into a grid.

We didn’t know what we were watching, but we were transfixed. Everyone from the adults to the one-year-old had their eyes glued to the TV.

• art
• design
• video

Bernini’s Ratto di Proserpina

I’m in Rome with my family to celebrate a milestone. We went to the Borghese Gallery this morning and I got to see my favorite sculpture, Bernini’s Ratto di Proserpina. A masterpiece. The photos both do and do not do it justice — so grateful to get to see it in person.

• art
• Bernini
• Rome
• sculpture
• travel

View of Azalea Garden from Mt. Fuji, Hasui Kawase

I love this gorgeous woodblock print from Hasui Kawase, View of Azalea Garden from Mt. Fuji. Hasui was a significant influence on Studio Ghibli & Hayao Miyazaki.

After all, the influence of Kawase on Ghibli, Miyazaki and his team of genius illustrators and animators is plain to see, and Miyazaki himself has previously stated his deep admiration for the legendary painter. The ability of Kawase to capture natural beauty alongside the human experience plays a significant part in Miyazaki’s love for Kawase, and it finds its way into several of the best Studio Ghibli films.

The likes of My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke all feature landscapes that are highly reminiscent of Kawase’s woodblock print style. Whether in the lush forests or beautiful countryside settings, it’s clear that Miyazaki was always keen on paying his respects to one of his favourite artists.

Here are a few more of Hasui’s hundreds of works:

You can find a large catalog of Hasui’s work here, at Wikimedia Commons, and at Flickr.

• art
• Hasui Kawase
• Hayao Miyazaki
• Japan
• Studio Ghibli

NYC Restaurant Interior or Black & White Drawing?

Whoa, look at the interior of this new Japanese restaurant in NYC called Shirokuro — all of the surfaces (floors, chairs, walls, counters, etc.) are painted to look like a 2-dimensional drawing. From Colossal:

“Shirokuro” translates to “white-black.” The New York Times shares that proprietor James Lim was inspired by an immersive, 2D restaurant he visited ten years ago in Korea, and he envisioned one of his own, now open in the East Village. To make the interior pop, he invited his friend, real estate agent and artist Mirim Yoo, to transform the space into an all-encompassing environment.

Here’s what it looks like with people and other non-b&w objects:

This reminds me of Alexa Meade’s work — it would be amazing to see a collab where Meade does up the servers (or guests) for a performance piece.

P.S. I want these 2-D Nikes. (via colossal)

• Alexa Meade
• architecture
• art
• design
• Mirim Yoo
• NYC
• restaurants
• Shirokuro

I Like Good Art and I Cannot Lie

I was reminded the other day of what a curated treasure trove of art 20x200 is. So I took a spin through their archive and pulled out some favorites. First up are these Always Choose Happy prints from Amos Kennedy (I also like his Book Lovers Never Go to Bed Alone prints):

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this solar eclipse photo from Carleton Watkins before. Wow:

Taken on July 29, 1878, Solar Eclipse by canonized landscape photographer Carleton Watkins powerfully, elegantly captures the exact moment the moon completely blocked the sun and cast a surreal shadow over the Earth. Watkins, known for his pioneering work depicting the American West, used this rare event as an opportunity to simultaneously experiment with photographic techniques and record a celestial occurrence. The piece’s resulting artistic and technical achievement is as sublime and awe-inspiring as the eclipse itself. It’s stunning that then, as now, eclipses humble us all by reminding us of our smallness in a vast and fascinatingly ordered universe.

Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii was a pioneer in color photography; he documented his native Russia in color from 1904 to 1915. Here’s his photograph of some flowers (lilacs? hydrangeas?):

We all might need some Rest right now:

I love the photographic work of Gordon Parks; this one is called Camp Fern Rock (archer):

If you’ve lived in NYC for any length of time, you can’t help but be a little bit curious and charmed by the now-abandoned City Hall subway station:

They also have a bunch of stuff from Jason Polan, this amazing eye test chart, prints of several works by Hilma af Klint, and the The Marvelous Mississippi River Meander Maps.

• 20x200
• art
• photography

The Good Luck Fish

The Public Domain Review has published some lovely illustrations of goldfish from a 1780 monograph called Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine.

Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine (1780) — the dorades in the title refers not to sea bream but the fish’s gilded appearance — was the first monograph on goldfish published in Europe, from a time when the fish were still bound up with Eastern exoticism in the Western imagination.

You can peruse the entire document at the Internet Archive.

• art
• fish
• illustration

A Visual Celebration of Miyazaki’s Weird Little Guys

A few weeks ago, I posted about the hundreds of stills from their animated movies that Studio Ghibli has made available for free download. Since I’m a big fan of the weird little guys director Hayao Miyazaki loves to put in his films (e.g. the kodama in Princess Mononoke¹ and Spirited Away’s soot sprites), I thought it would be cool to pull some images from the Ghibli archive featuring these lovable little freaks.

And an honorable mention to this frame from Porco Rosso:

The weird little guys category generally doesn’t apply to humans, but this image of little kids crawling all over a pig man’s airplane certainly classifies as an unusual swarm.

1. I bought a shirt with a kodama on it after seeing Princess Mononoke in 1999. At some point, I got rid of the shirt — why the hell did I do that?! It was very close to this shirt on Etsy selling for $288…the collar/sleeve color was a dark blue or black on mine.↩

• art
• Hayao Miyazaki
• movies
• Studio Ghibli

Subtly Geometric Birds

There’s something a little bit mesmerizing about Aled Thompson’s illustrations of birds. They are at once highly detailed and also slightly vectorish — and it shifts back and forth while I’m looking at them, like one of those young woman/old woman optical illusions.

You can find more of Thompson’s work on Instagram and Bluesky and can purchase prints here. (via @mims.bsky.social)

• Aled Thompson
• art
• birds
• illustration

Early 20th Century Advertisements for the Queen City Printing Ink Company

I love the colorful illustrative style of these adverts for the Queen City Printing Ink Company done by Augustus Jansson in the first decade of the 20th century.

• advertising
• art
• Augustus Jansson
• illustration

What?! 108-Gigapixel Scan of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Several years ago, digital microscope technology company Hirox collaborated with The Mauritshuis museum to create a 10-gigapixel scan of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Recently, Hirox upped the game with the creation of a 108-gigapixel scan of the painting. 108 billion pixels! And each pixel is 1.3 microns in size — 1000 microns is 1 millimeter. Incredible.

You can explore the scan of the painting courtesy of Hirox. Be sure to check out the 3D view (button at the bottom of the page); here’s a topographical view of the pearl:

For a look at how they captured this image, check out this behind-the-scenes video.

• art
• Johannes Vermeer

Hundreds of Free Images From Studio Ghibli Films

Well this is just wonderful: Studio Ghibli has uploaded hundreds of high-resolution still images from almost all of their films, including all of the major ones: Princess Mononoke, Sprited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, The Boy and the Heron, Howl’s Moving Castle, etc. etc. The images are labeled “solely for personal use by individual fans to further enjoy Studio Ghibli films” and people are urged to “please feel free to use the images within the bounds of common sense”.

Head to the list of Ghibli movies and click through to each film to find & download the stills. (via open culture)

• art
• movies
• Studio Ghibli

Silenced Science Stories

Silenced Science Stories is a collaboration between scientists and artists to tell the stories of scientific experts who have been affected by the Trump regime’s purge of their ranks.

We are organizing an illustrated series of portraits and stories of scientific experts whose work is being affected by federal budget cuts and mass firings.

We have over 30 science artists who are volunteering to create these features to communicate the careers and the important scientific research of federally employed and funded scientists.

If you’d like to get involved, they are looking for both artists and scientists with stories to tell. You can read more about the project in Physics Today. (via jonathan hoefler)

• 2025 Coup
• art
• Donald Trump
• illustration
• politics
• science

Oscilloscope Music — What You See Is What You Hear!

Watch video on YouTube.

This is a visualization created on the screen of an oscilloscope by a musical piece:

Primer is an introduction to oscilloscope music, a genre and art form where vector visuals are formed by the music itself. The image is produced by using the left audio channel to control the beam on the X axis, and the right audio channel to control the beam on the Y axis.

Once I wrapped my brain around what was happening here, I found this to be quite an impressive achievement: creating beautiful & coherent visuals from non-discordant music. (via waxy)

• art
• music
• video

Contemporary Oil Paintings by Sebas Velasco

Spanish artist Sebas Velasco does these cool oil paintings that seem more like snapshots than conventional portraiture, still life, or landscape. They’re captured from the height & distance of a camera, they have photographic depth-of-field, etc. I like them a lot. (via colossal)

• art
• Sebas Velasco

Tavares Strachan

I like these collage-like artworks by Tavares Strachan. One of the figures depicted above in the third piece, just above the queen, is polar explorer Matthew Henson, who was the first person (maybe?) to reach the geographic North Pole in 1909 as part of Robert Peary’s expedition.

• art
• Matthew Henson
• Robert Peary
• Tavares Strachan

Severance Scenes in Underwater Paint Swirls

Using paint in water to simulate clouds or smoke, Rudy Willingham created these magical scenes of characters from Severance (Instagram).

Willingham also created this cool animated zoetrope record with dancing Severance characters.

• art
• Rudy Willingham
• Severance
• TV

Everyday Icons: Amy Sherald

Watch video on YouTube.

Watch video on YouTube.

A great behind-the-scenes look at the work and process of artist Amy Sherald in these two videos from Art21.

In her studio in New Jersey, artist Amy Sherald paints portraits that tell a story about American lives. Her face just inches away from a canvas, the artist carefully applies stroke after stroke, building her narrative through paint. “I really have this belief that images can change the world,” says Sherald, a belief she acts upon in her compelling paintings, which depict everyday people with dignity and humanity. Following the tradition of American realists like Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, the artist uses her paintings to tell stories about America. Searching for models, settings, and scenarios that would convey the kinds of stories she wanted to tell, Sherald began to populate the world of her paintings with everyday people in everyday situations.

Sherald’s exhibition at The Whitney opens next month. (via the morning news)

• Amy Sherald
• art
• video

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits

The MFA in Boston is putting on an exhibition this spring and summer called Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) once wrote, “What I’m most passionate about…is the portrait, the modern portrait.” This passion flourished between 1888 and ‘89 when, during his stay in Arles, in the South of France, the artist created a number of portraits of a neighboring family—the postman Joseph Roulin; his wife, Augustine; and their three children: Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. Van Gogh’s tender relationship with the postman and his family, and his groundbreaking portrayals of them, are at the heart of this exhibition, which is the first dedicated to the Roulin portraits and the deep bonds of friendship between the artist and this family.

The BBC has more on the show and the artist’s relationship with the Roulin family.

“So much of what I was hoping for with this exhibition is a human story,” co-curator Katie Hanson (MFA Boston) tells the BBC. “The exhibition really highlights that Roulin isn’t just a model for him — this was someone with whom he developed a very deep bond of friendship.” Van Gogh’s tumultuous relationship with Gauguin, and the fallout between them that most likely precipitated the ear incident, has tended to overshadow his narrative, but Roulin offered something more constant and uncomplicated. We see this in the portraits — the open honesty with which he returns Van Gogh’s stare, and the mutual respect and affection that radiate from the canvas.

The exhibition will run at the MFA from March 30 to September 7, 2025 and then move on to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from October 3 to January 11, 2026.

Am I excited to see this exhibition? Yes. Is this post an excuse to post 1889’s Portrait of Joseph Roulin, one of my favorite van Gogh’s? Also yes. Win win.

• art
• MFA Boston
• museums
• The Van Gogh Museum
• Vincent van Gogh

Amy Sherald and Michelle Obama

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this photo before, of artist Amy Sherald and former First Lady Michelle Obama sharing a hug during a session for Sherald’s iconic portrait of Obama. What a different time that was, huh?

• Amy Sherald
• art
• Michelle Obama

The Public Domain Image Archive

The Public Domain Review (a true gem of the web) has launched The Public Domain Image Archive, “a curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse”.

While The Public Domain Review primarily takes the form of an “arts journal”, it has also quietly served as a digital art gallery, albeit one fractured across essays and collections posts. The PDIA sets out to emphasise this visual nature of the PDR, freeing these images from their textual homes and placing them front and center for easier discovery, comparison, and appreciation. Our aim is to offer a platform that will serve both as a practical resource and a place to simply wander — an ever-growing portal to discover more than 2000 years of visual culture.

The “infinite view” is particularly fun…you can just pan & scroll and let the whole collection wash over your visual cortex. (via colossal)

• art
• design