Belle Huntington II April 28, 2022PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History, Financial History, Women in American History Lead: Born of humble circumstances in Richmond, Arabella Yarrington Huntington in 1900 was considered by many to be the richest woman in the world. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: After helping to build the first transcontinental railroad, Collis Potter Huntington went south to explore investment opportunities. During his stays at a Richmond, Virginia boardinghouse, he fell in love with the daughter of the owner who also served as barmaid, Arabella. She was thirty years his junior but a vivacious and beautiful woman. She moved to New York, became his mistress, and bore him a son in 1870. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [6.57 KB]
Bayeux Tapestry II March 5, 2022PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITArt History, European History, French History Lead: To commemorate its victory on the battlefield at Hastings in 1066, the Norman aristocracy used a wonderful work of art, the Bayeux Tapestry. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The generations that followed the Norman invasion were not easy ones for England’s new rulers. Despite connections of blood between King William the Conqueror and the old Saxon royal house, most native Englishmen and all of the supplanted Saxon aristocracy considered William and his house to be usurpers, illegitimate pretenders to the throne. The Normans resorted to harsh tactics to bring the Saxons into line, ruthless suppressing land claims and planting armed garrisons all around the country. Read more →
Art Deco February 11, 2022PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History, French History Lead: After World War I architects and artist began to experiment with a new style combining color and industrial detail. In a 1960s revival, people called it Art Deco. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The term “Art Deco” is derived form “arts decoratifs” – French for decorative arts. The term was used in the title of a major international design exhibition in Paris in 1925: Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Delayed for a decade because of the wartime emergency, this exhibit launched a major international movement, but nowhere more influential than Europe and the United States. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [70.81 KB]
Mexican Muralism August 23, 2021PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History, Mexican History Lead: At the root of the explosion of graffiti on American public spaces was the revolutionary artistic movement known as Mexican Muralism. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Murals have been around since prehistoric times, but the modern genesis of the term in part originated with the Mexican "muralista" art movement. In the years following the Mexican revolution, during the 1920s and 1930s, native art, often with a powerful political message, began to decorate blank walls all over Mexico. Varying in quality, murals helped turn the cities into works of art. Muralists used open public spaces to call attention to a troubled society’s dreams, needs and hopes, revealing the need for social transformation. These murals could not be quickly eradicated, though the authorities tried. They were in-your-face, provocative, and demonstrated insistent demands by the artists for social justice. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [75.84 KB]
The Armory Art Show III February 16, 2021PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History Lead: While the works therein displayed stunned the audiences and shifted American art, not everyone was thrilled with the contents of the Armory Show. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: The International Exhibition of Modern Art opened on February 17, 1913 in New York. Its theme? The New Spirit. American modernist poet William Carlos Williams joined in with the ninety thousand who attended saying, “I went to it and gasped with all the rest.” In New York the press was generally sympathetic to the display of Cezanne, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Van Gogh, yet others were not so sanguine. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [106.06 KB]
The Armory Art Show II February 15, 2021PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History Lead: In 1913 a group of artistic innovators, rebels in another formulation, brought to the 69th Regiment Armory in New York a transformation of American art. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: They were known as the The Eight. Realistic painters, former newspaper artists from Philadelphia, yet they were strongly influenced by and drawn to the revolutionary transformation of European art particularly by the Impressionists. Their work demonstrated that while most American artists drew their inspiration from the salon style of universities and art academies, this approach was not universal. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [106.92 KB]
The Armory Art Show I February 14, 2021PermalinkSandy CreedToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History Lead: In February and March 1913 an art exhibition in the 69th Regiment Armory in New York exploded what many considered to be the complacency of American Art. It was the Armory show. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: American art in the 19th century was quite traditional, a form of realism that was almost descriptive, often termed narrative art. Images were recognizable, designed to inspire, not necessarily to challenge the viewer. The typical American artist produced works, whether in portraiture or landscape, that were recognizable and comfortable, especially to the uninitiated. Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab Download [107.03 KB]
Mary Cassatt II December 5, 2020PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAmerican History, Art History, Women's History Lead: In 1877 in Paris, France, young American artist Mary Cassatt received an invitation from Edgar Degas, one of the most celebrated of French Impressionist. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: By 1877, Philadelphian Mary Cassatt had settled permanently in Paris. Although her paintings had been accepted by the prestigious but conventional Paris Salon for several years, she grew contemptuous of the jury system of the Salon after one of her finest portraits was rejected because it was too bright and then accepted the following year after she deliberately darkened the background to make it look more academic. Read more →