Scott Mutter

"For thirty years, Scott Mutter employed classic photomontage techniques to create a world of his own -- a more perfect world. The hallmark of Mutter's remarkable imagery is the distinct sense that the elements of each picture belong together, even though the combination may violate the laws of physics."
The American Museum of Photography, Wikipedia, Scott Mutter

Kate Bush

Wikipedia - "Kate Bush (born Catherine Bush on 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic lyrics have made her one of England's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years having sold over 20 million records worldwide."
Wikipedia, Kate Bush, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Patti Smith: Veil

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
"Singer-songwriter Patti Smith has been toying with various media since she was an art student in NYC during the 1960s. There she met her lifelong friend, late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who inspired her to unleash her inner self through different means. For the past three decades, Smith has been well-known and respected in the art world, especially for her photography, drawings and poetry."
Fordham Observer, Robert Miller Gallery, The Art Newspaper, a patti smith website

Camille Pissarro

The Wheelbarrow
Wikipedia - "Camille Pissarro (July 10, 1830 – November 13, 1903) was a French Impressionist painter. His importance resides not only in his visual contributions to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but also in his patriarchal standing among his colleagues, particularly Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin."
Wikipedia, Google, Impressionist

Harappa

Gateway At Harappa: Indus Valley Civilization
"This ancient settlement existed from about 3300 BCE and is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents—considered large for its time. Although the Harappa Culture extended well beyond the bounds of present day Pakistan, its centres were in Sindh and the Punjab."
Wikipedia, Harappa

The Tropics. Views from the Middle of the Globe

"In the minds of Westerners, the term 'tropics' is usually connected to lush vegetation and exotic cultures - a view which is influenced, of course, by the traditional art from the equatorial regions."
Kulturstiftung Dea Bundes, Berliner Festspiele

Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscpes of the Golden Age

Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age
"In the 17th century a new genre of painting—the cityscape—emerged, fostered by the booming economy of the Dutch Republic and its affluent urbanites. Images of towns and cities became expressions of enormous civic pride."
Pride of Place, NYT

Stan Brakhage

Wikipedia - "James Stanley Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003), better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film."
Wikipedia, Stan Brakhage: A Brief Introduction, senses of cinema, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now

"In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice."
In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, Justseeds, flickr

Mission of Burma

Wikipedia - "Like many of their post-punk contemporaries, Mission of Burma's efforts are largely concerned with extending punk's original vocabulary without losing its essential rebellious spirit. Using rapid shifts in dynamics, unconventional time signatures and chord progressions along with tape effects, Mission of Burma challenges the prevailing idioms of punk while attempting to retain its power and immediacy."
Wikipedia, Mission of Burma, MySpace, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2)

David Attenborough

Wikipedia - "Sir David Frederick Attenborough ...(born 8 May 1926 in London, England) is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the respected face and voice of British natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years."
Wikipedia, PBS - Life of Bird, PBS Online, Video - The Living Planet

Rockport Harbor

Gloucester Daily Times - "Battered and broken by the great winter storm of 1978, Motif No.1 collapsed, and in an eye blink, was swept out of Rockport harbor. Within the year, a duplicate had been built and repainted to look as good as new."
Wikipedia, Rockport, flickr - Rockport Harbor, Wikipedia - Gloucester, Wikipedia - Plum Island

Johan Barthold Jongkind

Le Quai d'Orsay et la machine a guinder, 1852
Wikipedia - "Johan Barthold Jongkind (June 3, 1819 – February 9, 1891) was a Dutch painter and printmaker regarded as a forerunner of Impressionism who influenced Claude Monet."
Impressionism, artnet, Google

Heaney at 70

IrishTimes - "This month, Seamus Heaney celebrates his seventieth birthday. The Irish Times commemorates the occasion and his unique contribution to Irish literature."
IrishTimes, RTÉ Celebrates Seamus Heaney's Birthday, At 70, Heaney muses on cadences of a poetic life, (1)

Justice in Police Cells - A Walk Through Through

"JUSTICE is an exhibition in Bristol UK that brings together work from five artists from France and the US - C215, Dan23, Bruno Leyval, Least Wanted and MC1984. All of the work in the exhibition is based on the themes of Law and Order. The show includes specific installations, photography, prints, and stencils, all placed within the the Bridewell Police Station’s cells."
current, flickr,

William Blake

Newton (1795)
Wikipedia - "William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age."
Wikipedia, Tate, Blake Archive, poets.org, The William Blake Page, YouTube, (1), (2)

Turner & Italy

The Piazzetta, Venice, JMW Turner
"Turner & Italy begins in 1802, when the Peace of Amiens made travel on the Continent possible for British artists, and J M W Turner crossed the Alps for his first, brief glimpse of the country that was to play such a crucial role in his art."
Telegraph, National Gallery Complex, Turner and Italy - Telegraph,

Nirvana

Wikipedia - "Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the most notable being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990."
Wikipedia, last.fm, MTv, MySpace, YouTube, (1), (2), (3)

Cy Twombly

Wikipedia - "Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly Jr. (born April 25, 1928) is an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. He exhibits his paintings worldwide, and now has an exhibition in London."
Wikipedia, Gagosian Gallery, artnet, Haber's Art Reviews, YouTube, (1)

Brazza in Congo: A Life and Legacy

"There are many treacherous paths leading toward history’s realms of darkness, but when it comes to routes hacked out by imperialist powers in the Congo, we really do seem near darkness’s heart. First arrived the explorers, whose readiness to confront disease and starvation, crashing rapids and warring tribes, can seem on the edge of madness."
NYT, NYU

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933

"A team of international scholars discusses Calder's many innovations during this period in Paris, chief among them his abstract, motorized, and mobile works. They analyze the extended cast of Calder's animated Circus, made in Paris between 1926 and 1931, and include previously unpublished photographs by Brassaï and Kertesz of Calder and this beloved performative sculpture."
Whitney, Daily Icon, Art/Museums

Egypt's Golden Empire

"Over 3,500 years ago, Rome was no more than a soggy marsh and the Acropolis was just an empty rock, but Egypt was on the brink of its greatest age - the New Kingdom."
Egypt's Golden Empire - PBS, Video - Google, (1), (2)

Vasily Smyslov

Wikipeia - "Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ... (born March 24, 1921, in Moscow) is a Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958."
Wikipedia, chessgames.com, Chessville

Christine Alicino

VOICE - "That wistful, entrancing New York cityscape is far more romantic than Thursday Afternoon, an impressionistic image of a nude woman filmed in San Francisco in 1984. That woman is Eno's friend Christine Alicino, and though she is beautiful, Thursday Afternoon seems strangely impersonal, almost anatomical, a collection of pixels floating in slow motion."
VOICE, Christine Alicino, Wikipedia

CoEvolution Quarterly

Wikipedia - "CoEvolution Quarterly (1974 - 1985) is a descendant of Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog. It eventually became the Whole Earth Review."
Wikipedia, Whole Earth Catalog

Peter Blake

Wikipedia - "During the late 1950s, Blake became one of the best known British pop artists. His paintings from this time included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements."
Wikipedia, TATE Collection, EYESTORM, artnet

The Feelies

Wikipedia - "The Feelies are a rock band from North Haledon, New Jersey. They formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1992 after having released four albums. The band reunited in 2008. The Feelies rarely worked with outside producers and created shimmering soundscapes with multiple guitar layers that set them apart from most of the punk/new wave bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s."
Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, (1), (2)

Peter Fischli & David Weiss

Ben Hur, 1984-85
Wikipedia - "Peter Fischli (8 June 1952 in Zurich) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 in Zurich), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are an artist duo that have been collaborating since 1979. They are among the most renowned contemporary artists of Switzerland."
Wikipedia. Matthew Marks Gallery, YouTube, (1), (2)

Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575–1725

Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729), Birth of Adonis
"Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619) and his two cousins, the brothers Agostino (1557–1602) and Annibale (1560–1609) Carracci, together brought about a revolution in the study and practice of painting that forever changed the history of art."
artadox, Getty

Lindsay Anderson

Wikipedia - "Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was an Indian-born English feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if...., which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival."
Wikipedia, Lindsay Anderson, Lindsay Anderson - 1, Fandango

Conlon Nancarrow

Wikipedia - "Conlon Nancarrow (born October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was a U.S.-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955. Nancarrow is best remembered for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use musical instruments as mechanical machines, making them play far beyond human performance ability."
Wikipedia, A Conlon Nancarrow Web Page, YouTube, (1), (2), (3)

Anas Al-Shaikh

"When at a meeting with artists in Dubai, we mentioned that we were traveling to Bahrain they said that we absolutely must meet Anas Al-Shaikh."
Nafas, (1), Universes in Universe

John Sebastian

Wikipedia - "John Sebastian (born John Benson Sebastian, Jr. on March 17, 1944, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is an American songwriter and harmonica player. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. His tie-dyed denim jacket is prominently displayed there."
Wikipedia, (1), John Sebastian, allmusic, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4)

Caribbean views: personal selections by Mike Phillips

A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade, 1734
"The British Library holds a wealth of material relating to the British West Indies, as showcased in the Caribbean views online exhibition. We asked author and historian Mike Phillips to interpret and respond to this collection."
The British Library Board

Fyodor Vasilyev

Wikipedia - "Feodor Alexandrovich Vasilyev (1850-1873) was a Russian landscape painter who introduced the lyrical landscape style in Russian art."
Wikipedia