ephemeralol:

Walter de Maria

(via thingsorganizedneatly)

George Lois on inspiration. 

Also see the legendary adman on creativity and ideas as the product of discovery, not invention. 

(via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

amnhnyc:

Hey Tumblr, do you follow the Museum on Twitter?

Our Twitter followers are invited to an exclusive look at the new exhibition Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture on Monday, November 19! Explore the exhibition after hours, meet Museum scientists and curators, and enjoy a special selection of food and drink.

Sign up for the Our Global Kitchen Tweetup here. 

vintagevision:

First Ladies Exhibit in the A&I Building

Date: 1920s

Smithsonian Institution Archives

The First Ladies Hall was housed in the Arts & Industries Building from 1912 until it moved in the 1960’s to the Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History. From 1912 until 1955 the gowns were displayed in cases, as seen here in the 1920’s. After 1955 gowns were displayed in room settings. Exhibit cases of First Ladies Gowns were probably in the northwest range of the Arts and Industries Building. A woman is looking in the case to the left at the dress of Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of President James Buchanan. A woman and a man are looking in the case to the right which contains the dress of Jane Appleton Pierce (left), wife of President Franklin Pierce, and a dress of Abigail Powers Fillmore (right), wife of President Millard Fillmore.Notes: For additional information on the collection see the book entitled “The First Ladies Hall” by Margaret Brown Klapthor, Smithsonian Press 1972. Gowns in the collection were mounted on a plaster figure which were given similar facial features copied from a bust representing Cordelia, daughter of Shakespeare’s King Lear, done in 1863 by the sculptor Pierce F. Connelly, of Louisiana. By changing the expression of the eyes of each figure, and by copying the coiffure of the lady to be represented, a varied and interesting appearance was given to the entire group. The coiffure was copied from a photograph, painting, or piece of statuary of the lady whose dress was to be displayed. No attempt was made to portray the person represented, as the artistic task involved made this impractical.

fraupwder:

Museum of Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro by Oscar Niemeyer

csroth:

Rome

August 2012

Look up!

The Vatican Museum

matthewfelixsun:

My Favorite Paintings at Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Netherlands

Mercury, 1611, canvas, 214 x 120 cm 
Hendrick Goltzius (Mühlbracht 1558 - Haarlem 1617)

First, the subject of this painting was one of my favorite gods - Mercury, youthful, lithe, swift and elegant.  Second, he was the patron of the arts and god of rhetoric - the fields I valued highly.  The only reservation I had about this version of Mercury lay in the fact that he was more a man than a youth, even more so than Michelangelo’s David, massive, yet not ungraceful.

The museum’s website described the god as “recognizable by his winged helmet, the snake-entwined caduceus and a cockerel. In this version, his caduceus looks very much like a maulstick. At Mercury’s feet He drawing attributes, a set square, compasses, a drawing and an album of drawing patterns. Behind him stands a girl sticking her tongue out and holding a rattle and a magpie. In this painting. too, wisdom and stupidity are united: the girl symbolizes foolish prattle.”

What I liked most of the painting was the forward leaning pose of the god and his purposeful and determined look, and the wonderful rendering of his marvelous masculine body, if I could momentarily disassociate this powerful figure from the Mercury of my own concept.  I also found the cockerel at his feet very intriguing and its symbolism though escaped me.  Perhaps a reference to the dominating and warrior like nature of Greek gods?  Perhaps a reflection of Mercury, in its equally forward leaning pose?

topherchris:

anniewerner:

Spotlight on Museums

Museums!

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the oldest natural history museum in the US! 

The Philly Inquirer has a pretty good article on it.

(submission from skyerana)

(via red-vertex)

eyeheartattak:

modern art museum, stockholm

(via eyeheartattak-deactivated201212)

chelseatatum:

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (by evantravers)