What can we make of Yoko Ono’s Apple?
Given the work’s deceptive simplicity and literal labeling, one might reasonably think first either of the Magritte pipe piece at LACMA or of Apple Records. However, Ono’s Apple antedates by at least two years the formation of Apple Records in 1968, and Ono shares with Magritte little more […]

Just before Thanksgiving, The Washington Post reported on an amusing bit of politically tinged art wranglin’:
Censorship! That’s what some art lovers whispered during the Hillary Clinton fundraiser Nov. 5 at the Woodley Park home of Tony and Heather Podesta. The huge photograph of the nude man was missing from its usual spot on the living […]

About a week before Christmas, on a particularly slow news day, Drudge posted a photo of Hillary Clinton that had the blogosphere all abuzz. Hillary Clinton Ann Althouse gathered and summarized the relevant lines of commentary. It seems that some were shocked by Hillary’s weathered appearance, but some were shocked that others were shocked. Some, […]

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson, oil on canvas, 1893, may be seen at the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, Virginia.
Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson presents a memorable and moving scene: light from an unseen fireplace spreads leftward across a ramshackle interior where an old man transmits to his young pupil a bit of musical […]

Damien Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided, Steel, GRP composites, glass, silicone sealants, cow, calf, and formaldehyde solution, 1993, may be seen at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo.
An acquaintance once asked me what I make of Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided. Here’s one way to think about it: much of Damien Hirst’s […]