Years ago I taught illustration to high school graduates at an art institute. As I made references to artists, paintings and styles of the past, I was usually met with blank stares. It finally dawned on me that these young people, who aspired to be professional artists, knew virtually nothing of art history. How could that be!? Has our way of teaching history become so dry and date-heavy that even art students shy from picking up books on art history? The answer is, apparently — yes.
My class evolved into a Liberal Arts course as I continually explained that, while we tend to think of history in a timeline, all art is contemporaneous. It might still be true that a lot of young artists look to whatever is current for inspiration and direction, but the totality of art is a never-ending circle of inspiration.
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| Pompeian frieze, c. A. D. 79 | Picasso plate, 1956, Christie's |
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| Alchemy symbol, Middle Ages | Joan Miro, 1960 |
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| Etruscan figures, c. 750 B. C. | Alberto Giacometti, c. 1960, cabanahome.com |
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| Art Nouveau initials, c. 1910 | Fillmore poster, 1967 |
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| Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500 | Salvador Dali, 1931 |
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| York Minster stained glass, c. 1150 | Georges Rouault, 1937 |
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| Marcantonio Raimondi, 1520 | Edouard Manet, 1863 |
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| Eskimo seal-hunting stool, 1850s* | Magis Gallery coffee table, 2011 |
* The photograph of the Eskimo stool is from Crossroads of Siberia and Alaska,
by William W. Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell.
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| Leonardo da Vinci, 1509 | Buckminster Fuller, 1967* |
* The photograph of Buckminster Fuller's Montreal Biosphere
is by Ryan Mallard
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| Lascaux cave painting, c 15,000-10,000 B.C. | Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1837 |
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Antoni Gaudi, chimneys of Casa Mila, 1912 | Jonathan Adler ceramics, 2011
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| Leonardo da Vinci, 1499 | M. C. Escher, 1969 |
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Amish quilt, 1885 (University of Nebraska) | Victor Vasarely, Alom, 1967
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Highboy by Christopher Townsend, 1740s | AT&T Building by Philip Johnson, 1984
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Piet Mondrian, 1921 | Eames House, 1949
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Detail of a painting by Piero di Cosimo, c. 1495 | Olivetti poster by Milton Glaser, 1968
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Greek amphora, 535-530 B.C. | Wedgewood pottery, 1792
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Bookbinding from the library of Louis XIII, before 1643 | Louis Vuitton "Blois" pattern
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| Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila, 1905 - 1910 | Jeanne Gang's Aqua Building, 2009 |
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| Joseph Pickett, c. 1918 | Charles Wysocki, c.1970 |
Charles Wysocki considered himself neither a primitive nor a naive painter (I would call his charming style "pseudo-naive."). Wysocki said that he was influenced in part by the work of the primitive painter, Joseph Pickett, though only a handful of Pickett's works exist.
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| Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron, between 1864 and 1875 | Photo by Anne Geddes |
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| Napoleon by Ingres, 1806 | Ice T by Kehinde Wiley, 2005 |
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| Matthew Boulton, early 1770s | The Yusupov Egg, Peter Carl Fabergé, 1907 |
Matthew Boulton, the British industrialist and partner of James Watt, is credited with modernizing the British Mint. For a period of time he produced ormolu and marble urns to satisfy a great demand for them in Britain. When the demand suddenly ceased, Boulton was left with a large inventory of such urns, which Catherine II of Russia was happy to buy up. Doubtlessly, Fabergé was familiar with these pieces.
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| Chateau Rastignac, 1789-1817 | The White House, 1824 |
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| detail of a Flemish tapestry, c. 1500 | detail of William Morris tapestry, 1894 |
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| detail of Russian woodcut, early 1700s | detail of Ivan Bllibin illustration, 1907 |
Ivan Bilibin in some ways mirrored William Morris. He researched Russian art from the past and consciously gave it a fresh reinterpretation.
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| Maison Carrée, Nîmes. France, 20 B.C. | Jefferson's model for the Virgina Capitol, c. 1787 |
Thomas Jefferson visited the Maison Carrée in 1787 and judged it to be
the most perfect of extant buildings of antiquity. Because he remained
in France while the capitol was built, and not trusting the expertise of
American builders, Jefferson had this exact model made and sent to the
Richmond, Virginia site.
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| Alfred Leete, 1914 | James Montgomery Flagg, 1916-17 |
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| English fabric design, 1792 | French fabric design, 1923 |
Both fabrics are from the collections of the Victoria & Albert
Museum. Some of the museum's Art Deco fabric patterns can be viewed
here.
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| Norman Rockwell cover art, 1934 | Raleigh cigarette ad from the early 1970s |
Norman Rockwell painted 317 covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
Pompeii ceiling, before 79 A.D. | Robert Adam ceiling, Audley End, 1770's
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