Explore the past, understand the present, and inspire the future.

Image title: The Harvesters Medium: Oil on wood Date: 1565 Source: The Met Collection   “ Life a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of the future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter. ” — Charles Lindbergh Brushstrokes on Mars: The Future of Painting Beyond Earth’s Atmosphere   Introduction: Painting in the Final Frontier What would it mean to paint without gravity? As human Read more…

Image title: Hermann von Wedigh III (died 1560) Medium: Oil and gold on oak Date: 1532 Source: The Met Collection   “ The wisest men follow their own direction. ” — Euripides “The Frame Is a Lie”: Meta-Artworks That Break Their Own Borders   Introduction: Frame as Fiction The frame has long served as a boundary—a demarcation between art and the world, imagination and reality, high culture and common experience. But what happens when the Read more…

Image title: The Adoration of the Magi Medium: Distemper on canvas Date: 1472–74 Source: The Met Collection   “ All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ” — Pablo Picasso Postcards from the Apocalypse: Visual Artists React to Climate Crisis   Introduction: A World on Fire and Canvas We live in a time where climate change is no longer a distant warning—it’s a present and accelerating Read more…

Image title: Portrait of Napoleon I Medium: Wool, silk, silver-gilt thread (26-28 warps per inch, 10-12 per cm.); gilded pine frame Date: designed 1805, woven 1808–11 Source: The Met Collection   “ This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it. ” — Thomas Carlyle This Is Not a Brushstroke: Conceptual Painting After Magritte   Introduction: The Pipe That Wasn’t René Read more…

Image title: The Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John Medium: Oil on canvas Date: ca. 1624–25 Source: The Met Collection   “ When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself. ” — The Buddha After the Fall: Reimagining Classical Sculpture Through Postcolonial Eyes   Introduction: Marble Myths and Modern Reckonings For centuries, Greco-Roman sculpture has represented the pinnacle of ideal beauty in Western art. Chiseled marble Read more…

Image title: The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke Medium: Gilded silver, gold, enamel worked in cloisonné, and niello Date: early 9th century Source: The Met Collection   “ I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. ” — Confucius Pixels and Saints: AI Reimagines Medieval Iconography   Introduction: A New Digital Devotion In dimly lit abbey scriptoria, monks once painstakingly illuminated manuscripts with gold leaf and rich pigments, adorning sacred Read more…

Image title: Sprite Medium: High-copper alloy, fire-gilt, brown natural patina where exposed Date: 1432 Source: The Met Collection   “ Do more than dream: work. ” — William Arthur Ward More than Marble: Black Sculptors Transforming Classical Traditions   Introduction: Reframing the Pedestal The marble bodies of Greco-Roman antiquity have long stood as the epitome of artistic perfection in the Western canon. From Michelangelo’s David to the Roman copies of Greek originals, these statues have Read more…