Iran Inside Out

Shahram Entekhabi, Islamic Carding, 2007
"The groundbreaking exhibition features 35 artists living and working in Iran alongside 21 others living in the Diaspora. The result is a multifarious portrait of 56 contemporary Iranian artists challenging the conventional perceptions of Iran and Iranian art."
Chelsea Art Museum, NYT

Black Woodstock

"Besides Sly, the festival's roster included B.B. King, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, the Fifth Dimension, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Moms Mabley, Pigmeat Markham and more."
Smithsonian, Beat on the street harlem, npr, arthur, spartacus, Too Cool To Die, (1), contactmusic, Washington Times, Watt Stax

rhino

"Here at Rhino we try to treat all our releases with tender loving care. But we have to admit there are a few we care a little bit more about. Whether a classic album restored to its original glory, a comprehensive survey of an important artist or genre, or an album with that special something, there are a select few Rhino releases that can legitimately be called the 'Finest.' These are discs without which your life -- and any good record collection -- would be incomplete."
rhino

Primiti Too Taa: Kurt Schwitters

"The sonata consists of a written organization of phonetics, with notations in German. No notes, tempi, or formal dynamics are given, allowing the performer a bit of freedom."
UbuWeb, YouTube - Primiti Too Taa, PENNSOUND, EUNOIA, YouTube - The ABC's of DADA, (2), (3).

Ad Hoc Art

"Ad Hoc Art, a gallery in Bushwick, refers to itself as a 'creative fulcrum,' because it specializes in work more often found outside of the gallery scene, on streets, on bodies, underground. We found the work by street artists Gaia and Imminent Disaster very moving, especially the animals with hands and plaintive miens (a specialty of Gaia, apparently)."
We Heart New York, Ad Hoc Art

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

Wikipedia - "Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (July 17, 1796 – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism."
Wikipedia, ABC Gallery, NGA

Barbara Mensch

"Back then, there were many 'old timers' in the neighborhood. They were men who were retired from their jobs as ship captains, longshoremen, or workers at the Fulton Fish Market. They would just come around and drink at Carmine's or The Paris at certain hours of the day. I have pictures of some of them at The Paris, but I was not allowed to photograph inside Carmine's bar."
Luminous-Lint, Photographic NYC

Primal Snippets, on Vinyl

"A few months ago a peculiar item called “Favorite Recorded Scream” began to trickle into New York City record stores. Pressed on 12-inch vinyl in an edition of 500, it has little on its red cover except a list of 74 songs, each linked to a Manhattan record shop."
NYT

WOMAD

Wikipedia - "World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) is an organization founded in 1980 by Peter Gabriel, Thomas Brooman, and Bob Hooton. It was founded on the basis that many others would share their enthusiasm for music from other cultures, if only they had the opportunity to listen to some of the global sounds. The concept evolved from an idea Gabriel had at a concert involving an African group."
Wikipedia, Womad

Delta 5

Wikipedia - "The original members of Delta 5, Julz Sale (vocals/guitar), Ros Allen (bass) and Bethan Peters (bass), formed the band 'on a lark', but soon became a part of the thriving Leeds post-punk scene, and later added Kelvin Knight on drums and Alan Riggs on guitar. Combining feminist politics with a two-bass funk-punk sound (much in the style of another, more famous Leeds band, Gang of Four), they released in 1979 their debut single, 'Mind Your Own Business'."
Wikipedia, PERFECT SOUND FOREVER, last.fm, rhapsody, YouTube, (1)

Babar the Elephant

Wikipedia - "Babar the Elephant is a very popular French children's fictional character who first appeared in Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff in 1931 and enjoyed immediate success. ... Some writers, notably Herbert R. Kohl and Vivian Paley, have argued that, although superficially delightful, the stories are politically and morally offensive and can be seen as a justification for colonialism. Others argue that the French civilisation described in the early books had already been destroyed by the Great War and the books were originally an exercise in nostalgia for pre-1914 France."
Wikipedia, (1), The Morgan

Italian Models: Hébert and the Peasants of Latium

The Girls of Alvito
"As one of the events marking the centenary of the death of painter Ernest Hébert (1817-1908), the Musée Ernest Hébert in Paris and the museum in La Tronche are putting on an exhibition of Hébert's paintings of Italian peasants, a theme particularly dear to the artist."
Musée d'Orsay, Google

Donovan

Wikipedia - "Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow), is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music."
Wikipedia, Google, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Celtic tree worship

Yggdrasil, the World Ash (Norse)
Wikipedia - "Almost all kinds of tree found in the Celtic countries have been thought to have special powers or to serve as the abode of the fairies, especially the magical trio of oak, ash, and thorn. Next in rank are the fruit-bearing trees apple and hazel, followed by the alder, elder, holly, and willow. The esteem given different trees varies in different parts of the Celtic world; on the Isle of Man, the phrase ‘fairy tree’ denotes the tramman elder."
Wikipedia

Abstract expressionism

Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm
Wikipedia - "Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris."
Wikipedia, Met Museum, PBS

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice

Venus with a Mirror, 1555, Titian
"In the sixteenth century, Venice was one of the largest and richest cities in Europe. A steady demand for paintings from both local and international clients fostered a climate of exceptional competition and innovation. “Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice” is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artistic rivalry of the three greatest Venetian painters of the sixteenth century."
MFA

UbuWeb: Patti Smith

"Her February 1971 poetry reading at St. Mark's Church, where rock critic Lenny Kaye joined her for three songs on guitar, opened the door for her future recordings. The two hit it off right away, discovering a shared interest in obscure rock records. Two years later, Smith and Kaye reunited for a concert in celebration of Rimbaud, and the seeds for a band were sown."
UbuWeb

Closely Watched Trains

Wikipedia - "Closely Watched Trains ... is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. The film is based on a story by Bohumil Hrabal. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II."
Wikipedia, Criterion, YouTube

Emilio Morenatti

Pakistani
"A bombing wounded two Associated Press journalists embedded with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan. Photographer Emilio Morenatti and AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko were traveling with a unit of the 5th Stryker Brigade of Fort Lewis, Wash., when their vehicle ran over a bomb planted in the open desert terrain, the military said."
Sacramento Bee, Denver Post, (1)

Brooks Robinson

Wikipedia - "Robinson grew up to play third base for the Orioles, and gained great renown for his fielding ability. Nicknamed 'The Human Vacuum Cleaner', he is generally acclaimed as the greatest defensive third-baseman of all time."
Wikipedia

The Battle of Issus

Wikipedia - "The Battle of Issus (or more commonly The Battle at Issus) occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia."
Wikipedia

Mark Trail

Wikipedia - "Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. Mark Trail, the main character, is a photojournalist and magazine writer whose assignments lead him into danger and adventure. His assignments inevitably lead him to discover environmental misdeeds, most often solved with a crushing right cross."
Wikipedia
King Features
Hickory Tech

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Czara z Babelkami, 2006
Wikipedia - "Von Rydingsvard is best known for creating large-scale, often monumental sculpture from the cedar beams which she painstakingly cuts, assembles, and laminates, finally rubbing powdered graphite into the work's textured, faceted surfaces."
Wikipedia, PBS, Conversations, Google

Chess960

Wikipedia - "Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess is a chess variant invented by former World Champion Bobby Fischer by modifying the rules of Shuffle Chess so that castling possibilities exist for all starting positions. It was originally announced on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina."
Wikipedia, Chess960, Chess for the 21st Century

Jana aka J's

"Street art, stencils, photography, screenprint ... "
Jana aka J's, janaundjs

Nick Drake

Wikipedia - "Nicholas Rodney 'Nick' Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician best known for his haunting, acoustic, autumnal songs. His primary instrument was the guitar, though he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, and saxophone."
Wikipedia, Nick Drake, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Axis Mundi

"Axis Mundi proposes a conceptual alternative to business-as-usual, choosing the site of the proposed 53W53rd, among the city’s largest skyscraper proposals in one of the most overbuilt parts of Midtown to test their ideas. Their design suggests new expressive possibilities for an urbanism of difference rather than of homogeneity."
MoMA, Design Boom

Perseids

Wikipedia - "The Perseids ... is the name of a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are so-called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Perseus."
Wikipedia, Stardate, Space, Chiff, Universe Today,

Mark Rothko

Wikipedia - "Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz (Latvian: Marks Rotko; September 25, 1903–February 25, 1970), was a Latvian-born American painter and printmaker. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted the classification as an 'abstract painter'."
Wikipedia, NGA, Tate, YouTube - BBC, (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)

New Left

Wikipedia - "The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on union activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The U.S. 'New Left' is associated with the Hippie movement, college campus mass protest movements and a broadening of focus from protesting class-based oppression to include issues such as gender, race, and sexual orientation."
Wikipedia, Brown U.

King Sunny Adé

Wikipedia - "King Sunny Adé (Sunday Adeniyi, born September 22, 1946) is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian Jùjú music and a Pioneer of Modern world music."
Artist Direct, last.fm, YouTube, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)

Alchemy

An Alchemist in his Workshop, depicts alchemy in the 17th century
Wikipedia - "Alchemy (Arabic:al-kimia) (Hebrew:אלכימיה al-himia) is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties. The practical aspect of alchemy generated the basics of modern inorganic chemistry, namely concerning procedures, equipment and the identification and use of many current substances."
Wikipedia, The Alchemy web site, Transforming the Alchemists - NYT

Emory Douglas: Black Panther

"A collectors' series of Emory Douglas serigraph art prints are available now from Station 4 Gallery. Each print is signed by Emory Douglas and numbered on archival cotton rag paper. These are reprinted in collaboration with the artist."
MOCA, newmuseum, SF Gate

George Inness

Evening Landscape, 1863
Wikipedia - "George Inness (May 1, 1825 -August 3, 1894), was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism found vivid expression in the work of Inness' maturity. He is best known for these mature works that helped define the Tonalist movement."
Wikipedia, George Inness

Myth of Tarzan under scrutiny at Paris show

"Jungle saviour, noble savage, or green superhero? Tarzan's many mythical faces come under the microscope at a Paris exhibition complete with sounds of the forest, and the hero's distinctive cry."
Google, onculture, BBC, NYT