Picture This | Big Think http://bigthink.com/blogs/Picture-This <p>In this image-drenched world, the line between the visual arts and society is less distinct than ever before. The artists of today speak not only to present times but also engage in dialogue with the artists of the past, who both haunt us and challenge us to rise above the mundane. Picture This stands at the crossroads of the present, past, and future in art, taking a good look around at the landscape and what it means to us. In doing so, it aims to provide a roadmap for those interested in how looking at art leads to thinking about life.</p> Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:30:38 -0000 Copyright Big Think. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. Why David Hockney Went Back to Nature http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/V2eJbXGSAMg/42426 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42426 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:01:03 -0500 David Hockney says in Bruno Wollheim’s film David Hockney: A Bigger Picture , “because there’s the infinite there, meaning you can’t think it up.” That film captures Hockney painting many of the amazing landscapes that ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42426 Is Art History Better Unsaid Than Red? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/OrxpH9ifWts/42410 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42410 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:57:13 -0500 Museum of Modern Art in New York has many seeing red over “seeing” Reds in the collection. As reported in Art News, Artist Yevgeniy Fiks’ “performative tour” titled simply enough “Communist Tour of MoMA” begins with the current exhibition Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42410 Do Artists Have the Right to Destroy Their Own Work? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/E63-UVPW5yY/42336 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42336 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:13:24 -0500 Gerhard Richter, set to celebrate his 80th birthday on February 9th and receive all the accolades and ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42336 Is Christo Bad for the Environment? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/ItvkJC81Mpw/42319 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42319 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:24:17 -0500 Christo and you specialize in “environmental art,” that rule takes on an even greater importance. Christo’s latest project, titled “Over the River,” hopes to hang 5.9 miles of "silvery, translucent" panels along the ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42319 Was William T. Trego America’s Greatest Disabled Artist? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/Xm2oFbU18oU/42287 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42287 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:26:00 -0500 One of the biggest problems with lists is that with lists come labels. A list of African-American artists or women artists already sets them up as different (and perhaps less, somehow) than artists on another list. But sometimes lists also celebrate difference and how individuals overcome ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42287 Why Van Gogh Is Ready for His Close Up http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/njlTSuHG4iU/42263 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42263 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:31:31 -0500 Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up,” says washed-up silent film star Norma Desmond in the final scene of Billy Wilder’s unforgettable 1950 film Sunset Boulevard . Gloria Swanson caps off her Oscar-nominated performance as Norma by walking into the camera’s lens and revealing in that ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42263 Should the Mona Lisa’s Smile Be Saved? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/M7RurPwNslA/42228 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42228 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:10:45 -0500 recent article on Art Watch UK titled “What Price a Smile? The Louvre Leonardo Mouths that are Now at Risk,” Michael Daley ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42228 Why the Renaissance Model of Portraiture Endures http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/wCuMgt3ra3o/42128 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42128 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:11:29 -0500 Mount Rushmore-ready chin, the never-retreating hairline, or the ideally symmetrical smile to which we surrender our hearts ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42128 Laurie Anderson’s Vision of Art in the Future http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/KIqJj5SucIw/42093 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42093 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:51:07 -0500 Buddhism is probably what attracts every artist to being an artist—that it’s a godlike thing,” performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson says in an interview in the January 2012 issue of Believer magazine. In addition to that interesting take on the godhood ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42093 How Zoe Strauss Flips Urban Stereotypes on Their Head http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/picture-this/~3/bf3nKcxG1A4/42046 http://bigthink.com/ideas/42046 Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:59:46 -0500 Zoe Strauss bought a camera in 2000 and began shooting a 10-year project that had previously existed only in her imagination. The urban landscape of Philadelphia and its inhabitants soon found a new herald and champion in Strauss, who dreamed of ...

Read More]]> Bob Duggan http://bigthink.com/ideas/42046