Peter Paul Rubens Venus at the Mirror 1615
The Rape of the Sabine Women Peter Paul Rubens probably 1635-40
Oil Sketch for High Altarpiece, St Bavo, Ghent Peter Paul Rubens 1611-12
A Lion Hunt Peter Paul Rubens about 1614-15
Rubens was a remarkable individual. Not only was he an enormously successful painter whose workshop produced a staggering number of works; but he also played an important diplomatic role in 17th-century European politics. He was clearly a charming and attractive companion, described as having 'a tall stature, a stately bearing, with a regularly shaped face, rosy cheeks, chestnut brown hair, sparkling eyes but with passion restrained, a laughing air, gentle and courteous'.
This bowl is decorated with three figures, which are among the earliest pictures of human beings. The figures look as if they are dancing, especially if the bowl is rotated. Was this pottery painted to show how dances or rituals were performed? About 4000 BC, excavated at Tall-i Bakun, southern Iran
World's Oldest Board Game from Ur
Copper alloy foundation peg: The inscription on this peg names A'anipada, an Early Dynastic king of Ur, the goddess Inanna, and a shrine. It was found with the carved stone and the lapis lazuli face (right) probably a foundation deposit. About 2500 BC (Early Dynastic III) from Ur.
Tom Crean with sled dog puppies, February 1915
Leto's introduction into Lycia was met with resistance; there, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses, when Leto was wandering the earth after giving birth to Apollo and Artemis, she attempted to drink water from a pond in Lycia. The peasants there refused to allow her to do so by stirring the mud at the bottom of the pond. Leto turned them into frogs for their inhospitality, forever doomed to swim in the murky waters of ponds and rivers. This scene is represented in the central fountain, the Bassin de Latone, in the garden terrace of Versailles.
1885 The Pleiades by symbolist painter Elihu Vedder
Goya's Kronos eating his kids
Peter Paul Rubens' more refined Saturn Devouring His Son (1636) may have inspired Goya. (Greek: Kronos) the great Flemish painter has also painted the astronomical image of the planet Saturn with three bodies, an image that perfectly mirrors Galileo's description
Ram in the Thicket Great Death Pit at Ur 2500 BC The goat was sacred to the shepherd god Dumuzid, whose 'sacred marriage' to Inanna was a key mythological element in sustaining the land's productivity.
Sumerian Votive Statuettes Gypsum, inlaid shell, black limestone and bitumen paint 72cm Found deliberately buried beneath the floor of the Square Temple at Eshnunna Iraq Museum, Baghdad 2600 BC Sculptures such as these were placed in temples to pray constantly for the individuals who had dedicated them, their wide eyes expressing constant attention and devotion to the deity.
Lioness Demon Limestone 8.8cm Brooklyn Museum of Art The goddess 'ring-post' symbol— probably representing a reed stalk tied into a loop at the top— is carved twice on the figure's shoulder blades, and an association between lions and Inanna is well established in later art.
Alabaster 3200 BC 100cm The Sacred Vase of Warka may represent the earliest known example of narrative art in the world. In the top register, a priest-king presents gifts either to the goddess Inanna, goddess of sexual love and of war, or to a priestess acting as her representative. In the sacred marriage, the king became the young shepherd god Dumuzid, while the chief priestess of Inanna became the goddess. Their union renewed both the fertility of the land and the connection between mortals and their gods. The current condition of the Warka Vase (museum number IM19606)[4] is not known. In June 2007, The Guardian newspaper reported that widespread looting of antiquities is ongoing in Iraq and that the director of the Iraq Museum, Donny George, fled in August 2006 after receiving death threats. The museum's entrances have been bricked up, the building surrounded by concrete walls, and the museum's staff do not have access.
Nobuaki Onishi Kyatatsu Epoxy Resin, Urethane Resin, Acrylic Color 93 × 615 × 56 cm 2010
Carrie Schneider Derelict Self (Series) C-print 30 x 36in 2006-2007
Samuel Rousseau Chimicaland B 9,4 x 7,3 x 1,6 inches empty pharmaceutical blisters, digital video screen, stainless steel 2010
for Lisa
Dagger Handle Hippopotamus Ivory 25.5cm / 10in 3300 BC
Female Figurine Bone and Lapis Lazuli 11.4cm / 4.5in 3700 BC
Hand Stencils Pigments on Rock 15cm / 6in In situ, Cuevas de las Manos, Rio de las Pinturas 9500 BC
Hall of the Bulls Pigment on Rock (area shown) 10m / 33ft Lascaux Caves 17,000 BC
Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel Mammoth Ivory 28cm / 11in 28,000 BC
Valentine Hugo and Others (probably Tanguy and Eluard) Untitled (Exquisite Corpse) Pencil on Paper 10 1/3 x 7 inches 1929-1934 Alan Koppel Gallery
Gottfried Helnwein 2009 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
Markus Schinwald Pia Oil on Canvas 51 x 43 cm 2009
Kristof Kintera
Sean Landers MacGregor 2009 Oil on Linen 40x32 inches Friedrich Petzel Gallery
Wim Botha
William Kentridge Preparatory materials from The Nose 2009
John Gerrard Lufkin (near Hugo, Colorado) 2009
Trevor Paglen Altman-Siegel Gallery
Jorma Puranen Shadows, Reflections and All That Sort of Thing #50 digital c-print, Diasec 125 x 100 cm / 49 x 39 in 2010
Raqib Shaw Fallen Torero 2009 Acrylic, Glitter, Enamel and Rhinestones on Paper White Cube Gallery
Joachim Schönfeldt
Susan Collis
Grayson Perry Walthamstow Tapestry 2009 http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=138&Title=Grayson%20Perry,%20The%20Walthamstow%20Tapestry
John Wycliffe 1320-1384 http://www-dyn.cl.cam.ac.uk/~tl318/stylistics/index.php
Genetics
Drawing by Calculina
Archimedes' Screw http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Screw/Applications.html
A pillar at the Göbekli Tepe temple: the oldest known temple in the world (10th Millenium BC... 7000 years before the Great Pyramids)
Jenna Post-Surgery
Asteroid 3753 Cruithne
Ishtar from the Kudurru of Melishipak
OZYMANDIAS Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Salvator Rosa Self-Portrait 1640
Vector Nubbins
iRobot's Seaglider Drifts the Ocean Listening for Whale Songs
Pan, a small ring-embedded moon (28 km/17 mi wide) coasts into view from behind Saturn. The view of the rings is distorted near Saturn by the planet's upper atmosphere. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million km (1.1 million mi) from Pan. Image scale is 11 km (7 mi) per pixel on Pan. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #
John Baldessari I Will Not Make Anymore Boring Art 2009
Angolo Bronzino An Allegory With Venus and Cupid 1545
Diego Velázquez Rokeby Venus (La Venus del espejo) c. 1648-1651
Titian Venus and Cupid with a Partridge 1550
Jose Luis Rodriguez The Storybook Wolf 2009
Marcel Duchamp The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même) 1923
Andreas Gursky Kamiokande 2007 (Kamiokande is a neutrino observatory in Japan)
An-My Lê 29 Palms, Infantry platoon - Retreat gelatin silver print 26 x 37.5 in. / 66 x 95.3 cm. 2003 - 2004
Tim Hawkinson Emoter 2002
Picture for Women 1979 Transparency in lightbox 1425 x 2045 mm Cinematographic photograph In Manet's painting, a barmaid gazes out of frame, observed by a shadowy male figure. The whole scene appears to be reflected in the mirror behind the bar, creating a complex web of viewpoints. Wall borrows the internal structure of the painting, and motifs such as the light bulbs that give it spatial depth. The figures are similarly reflected in a mirror, and the woman has the absorbed gaze and posture of Manet's barmaid, while the man is the artist himself. Though issues of the male gaze, particularly the power relationship between male artist and female model, and the viewer's role as onlooker, are implicit in Manet's painting, Wall updates the theme by positioning the camera at the centre of the work, so that it captures the act of making the image (the scene reflected in the mirror) and, at the same time, looks straight out at us.
Édouard Manet A Bar at the Folies-Bergère 1882 Oil on canvas 96 cm × 130 cm (37.8 in × 51.2 in) Courtauld Institute of Art, London The painting has been interpreted as a modern paraphrasing of Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez.
Diego Velázquez Las Meninas 1656 Oil on canvas 318 cm × 276 cm (125.2 in × 108.7 in) Museo del Prado, Madrid The elusiveness of Las Meninas, according to Dawson Carr, "suggests that art, and life, are an illusion". The relationship between illusion and reality were central concerns in Spanish culture during the 17th century, figuring largely in Don Quixote: the best-known work of Spanish Baroque literature. In this respect, Calderón de la Barca's play Life is a Dream is commonly seen as the literary equivalent of Velázquez's painting: What is a life? A frenzy. What is life? A shadow, an illusion, and a sham. The greatest good is small; all life, it seems Is just a dream, and even dreams are dreams. The art historian Svetlana Alpers suggests that, by portraying the artist at work in the company of royalty and nobility, Velázquez was claiming high status for both the artist and his art, and in particular to propose that painting is a liberal rather than a mechanical art.
Jeff Wall A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993
Katsushika Hokusai Caught by the Ejiri Wind 1831-1833 One of the 36 views of Mount Fuji
Spiral Jetty via Satellite
Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty 1970 Mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, and water coil, 13 x 15 x 1,500 ft. Dia Art Foundation. Photograph JEK 2005 © Art © Estate of Robert Smithson/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Lee Friedlander Shadow-New York City 1966, printed 1973 gelatin silver print
Vito Acconci Following Piece 1969
Vito Acconci Step Piece 1970
Jean Tinguely Homage to New York 1960
Hans Haacke Condensation Cube begun 1965, completed 2008
John Baldessari I Will Not Make Anymore Boring Art 1971
TV Star Map July 2009
Prehistoric Penguin
Photobomb!
Depressed Pug Sitting Outside Cafe Trieste
James Turrell Meeting 1986 Photo by Michael Moran Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center As Turrell described it: “There’s this four-square seating that’s inside, seating toward each other, having a space that created some silence, allowing something to develop slowly over time, particularly at sunset. Also, this Meeting has to do with the meeting of space that you’re in with the meeting of the space of the sky.” Meeting is one of Turrell’s series of “skyspaces,” all involving enclosed spaces with rectangular or rounded holes cut into the ceiling exposing the open sky. Meeting opens to the public approximately one hour before sunset, weather permitting.
The Weather Project © Olafur Eliasson © 2003 Tate, London In this installation, The Weather Project, representations of the sun and sky dominate the expanse of the Turbine Hall. A fine mist permeates the space, as if creeping in from the environment outside. Throughout the day, the mist accumulates into faint, cloud-like formations, before dissipating across the space. A glance overhead, to see where the mist might escape, reveals that the ceiling of the Turbine Hall has disappeared, replaced by a reflection of the space below. At the far end of the hall is a giant semi-circular form made up of hundreds of mono-frequency lamps. The arc repeated in the mirror overhead produces a sphere of dazzling radiance linking the real space with the reflection. Generally used in street lighting, mono-frequency lamps emit light at such a narrow frequency that colours other than yellow and black are invisible, thus transforming the visual field around the sun into a vast duotone landscape.
Lawrence Weiner A line drawn from the first star at dusk to the last star at dawn wall painting for the exhibition As far as the eye can see, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, from November 15, 2007 to February 10, 2008, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, from April 13, to July 14, 2008, and K21, Düsseldorf, from September 27, 2008 to January 4, 2009.
Pierre Huyghe Light Conical Intersect anti-intervention/anti-event 1996 Collection Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Huyghe projected Gordon Matta-Clark's video of Conical Intersect on a new building that stands in the place of the original site.
Gordon Matta-Clark Conical Intersect 1975 For the Paris Biennale in 1975, Matta-Clark made a major cut in two houses adjacent to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Les Halles. The cut, shaped like a twisted cone, was inspired by Anthony McCall's film Line Describing a Cone. Camera: Bruno Dewitt, Gordon Matta-Clark.
Hugo Ball Reciting one of his sound poems at Cabaret Voltaire February 5, 1916 http://www.ubu.com/sound/ball.html
John Locke, of the Former stopabductions.com
Plaque from the Pioneer X Spacecraft sent to Jupiter 1972
The Arecibo message sent to globular star cluster M13 by the SETI Institute 16 November 1974
Short Circuit 1986
Pixar WALL-E 2008
Ken Goldberg Telegarden 1995-2004
Greg Niemeyer Oxygen Flute 2002
Analytic Engine designed by Charles Babbage through 1871
Whether the sky be clear or cloudy, it always seems to us to have the shape of an elliptic arch; far from having the form of a circular arch, it always seems flattened and depressed above our heads, and gradually to become farther removed toward the horizon. Our ancestors imagined that this blue vault was really what the eye would lead them to believe it to be; but, as Voltaire remarks, this is about as reasonable as if a silk-worm took his web for the limits of the universe. The Greek astronomers represented it as formed of a solid crystal substance; and so recently as Copernicus, a large number of astronomers thought it was as solid as plate-glass. The Latin poets placed the divinities of Olympus and the stately mythological court upon this vault, above the planets and the fixed stars. Previous to the knowledge that the Earth was moving in space, and that space is everywhere, theologians had installed the Trinity in the empyrean, the angelic hierarchy, the saints, and all the heavenly host....
Lisa Foo's Portrait of Donna Haraway
The Eight Trigrams of the I-Ching
Hubble Deep Field (HDF), was assembled from 342 separate exposures taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) for ten consecutive days between December 18 and 28, 1995
On May 17th, 2007, the Spirit Mars Rover captured this picture. “Spirit’s dragging right front wheel uncovered some of the best evidence Spirit has found for ancient water-rich environments in Gusev Crater — bright patches of almost pure, fine-grained silica (SiO2). On ancient Earth, warm, evaporating coastal waters deposited fine silica in shallow sediments.”
1921
Joseph Wright of Derby An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump 1768
Hanson Robotics Philip K Dick 2005
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology & Hanson Robotics Albert Hubo 2005
Hokusai 蛸と海女 (The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife) 1820
Osamu Tezuka メトロポリス (Metoroporisu, Metropolis) 2001
Fritz Lang Metropolis 1927
Bjork All is Full of Love 1998
Dante
Bones
Katamari Damacy's Prince of the Cosmos
Jacques-Louis David La Mort de Marat (The Death of Marat) 1793
René Magritte Le Blanc Seing 1965
Dante's Second Swoon
Théodore Géricault Le Radeau de la Méduse (The Raft of the Medusa) 1818
Winslow Homer The Gulf Stream 1899
Hokusai 神奈川沖浪裏 (Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, Under a Wave off Kangawa) 1832
ENIAC 1946
Homeric Hymn XXXII. To Selene l. And next, sweet voiced Muses, daughters of Zeus, well- skilled in song, tell of the long-winged Moon. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. The air, unlit before, glows with the light of her golden crown, and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean, and donned her far-gleaming, shining team, drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime in the mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men.
