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Art Picture of the Day

@artpod.bsky.social

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New art shared daily via Art Institute of Chicago By @trevinflick.bsky.social

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Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 10

Statue of Horus
Egyptian

From about 3000 BCE, when ancient Egypt had its first kings, Egyptians considered their ruler to be the earthly manifestation of Horus, the god of divine kingship. Statues of Horus in the form of a falcon, like this one, were displayed in temples as part of the royal cult, which celebrated the king’s role as an intercessor between humans and gods.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 9

Bodhisattva
China

In eighth-century China, Buddhist sculptors adopted new standards of secular beauty for spiritual figures. Whereas images of the Buddha appear sternly formal, bodhisattvas, the merciful deities that guide people toward salvation, often display more sympathetic and relatable features. This bodhisattva's graceful proportions, upswept hair, sinuous drapery, and delicate jewelry convey an appealing physical elegance.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 8

Target
Jasper Johns
American
born 1930

Throughout his career, pioneering artist Jasper Johns repeatedly explored various symbols, including numbers, the American flag, and the alphabet. The target was among the earliest of these recurring motifs: from 1955 to 1961 he produced several dozen paintings and drawings, including this work, that used the symbol as a means of exploring the color and character of his mark making in various mediums.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 6

Icebound
John Henry Twachtman (American
1853–1902)

During the last decade of his life, John Henry Twachtman frequently painted views of the landscape surrounding his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Almost square in format, this painting’s harmonious composition exemplifies Twachtman’s opinion that “never is nature more lovely than when it is snowing.” He enjoyed depicting the beauty of the frozen terrain, believing that it was conducive to contemplation and regeneration.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 5

Standing Bather, Seen from the Back
Paul Cezanne (French
1839–1906)

When making an artwork, Cezanne often significantly altered his original design. This canvas was cut from a larger painting, retaining remnants of the other composition. In the lower-left corner, a series of blue lines might be legs of a seated figure; the body may have continued on another part of the canvas. These lines on top of the background foliage, indicate that he added a second figure after completing the first, before changing his mind.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 4

Statuette of Osiris-Iah
Egyptian

According to the Egyptian religion, gods could combine with each other to form composite deities. The complex crown of this bronze statuette has characteristics of the god Osiris as well as the ibis-headed moon god Thoth. This statuette was dedicated to the dual god by a man named Pamu.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 3

Dancing Brush
Toshiko Takaezu (American
1922–2011)

Experimental ceramist Toshiko Takaezu grounded her work in both her Japanese heritage and midcentury modern abstraction. Her distinctive vessel-like sculptures range from small spheres to over six-feet-tall elongated forms; some have a small opening at the top, and others do not, rejecting utilitarian function. Takaezu layered multiple glazes in a variety of colors and intensities to make her sculptures “come alive.”

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 2

Bell (nao)
China
probably Hunan province

Bells are among China's earliest percussion instruments. This example was designed to be mounted on its hollow stem with its curved mouth facing up and struck from the outside with a mallet. Unlike other types of bronze bells that were assembled as chime sets, this one was intended to be played as an individual instrument. It may have been sounded during ceremonies or military campaigns.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · Jun 1

Bell (nao)
China
probably Hunan province

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 31

Yellow Dancers (In the Wings)
Edgar Degas (French
1834–1917)

Edgar Degas first painted dancers as an independent subject in 1871. He would go on to devote almost half his output as an artist to this subject, observing countless performances and rehearsals at the Paris Opéra. Here, he placed the viewer in the wings, as if among the elite opera subscribers who paid for the privilege to roam and socialize backstage.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 30

Painting with Troika
Vasily Kandinsky
Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire
now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944

Vasily Kandinsky was a founding member of Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider), a loose alliance of artists based in Munich. Often working in a common palette and using expressive brushwork, they shared a belief in the symbolic and spiritual importance of forms and colors, including their effect on emotions and memories. Blaue Reiter also promoted a intuitive approach to painting, looking to non-Western, European medieval, and folk art for inspiration.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 29

Croquet Scene
Winslow Homer (American
1836–1910)

One of America’s foremost painters, Winslow Homer began his career as an illustrator. In the late 1860s, he turned to oil painting, depicting figures bathed in sunlight. These early paintings feature scenes of upper-class leisure pursuits—in this case, women and men playing the popular sport of croquet, a game that had recently been introduced to the United States from the British Isles.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 28

Portrait of a Lady
Frans Hals (Dutch
1582–1666)

Frans Hals, one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the 17th century, demonstrated here his signature verve in inscribing decoration on black satin and capturing the freshness of his subject’s skin.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 27

Lakota Honor - Sees The Horses Woman - SuWakan Ayutan Win
Rhonda Holy Bear
Wakah Wayuphika Win, Making with Exceptional Skills Woman (Cheyenne River Lakota, born 1959)

Rhonda Holy Bear uses her art to create cross-generational connections. This sculpture portrays a Lakota widow honoring her fallen husband by wearing his regalia. Her belt of honors showcases her own accomplishments as a woman, wife, and mother. The figure features 32 different Lakota artistic techniques, such as beading and quillworking.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 26

Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French
1841–1919)

The two girls in this painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir are Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg, acrobats who performed in the famed Cirque Fernando in Paris. They are depicted clutching oranges tossed to them from the crowd as gifts. Although they are painted standing in the center of a circus ring, Renoir actually painted them in his studio, where he could take full advantage of natural sunlight.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 25

Bordighera
Claude Monet (French
1840–1926)

Monet created this painting in 1884 when he traveled to Bordighera, a town on the Italian Riviera. In a letter to sculptor Auguste Rodin, he described his efforts to capture the brilliant Mediterranean light, declaring that he was “fencing, wrestling, with the sun.” In this light-drenched composition painted from a hilltop vantage point, the sea is barely visible through the interlaced trunks of pine trees.

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Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 24

Mirror with "TLV" Pattern
China

The design of this mirror reflects principles of ancient Chinese cosmology that envisioned a circular universe enclosing a square earth. Within the border of the square are characters denoting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. This mirror was designed to place its owner at the center of the cosmos, a favorable position symbolically protected by the Animals of the Four Directions.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 23

Self-Portrait
Andy Warhol
American
1928-1987

Andy Warhol based his first painted self-portrait on a photo booth photograph. The work showcases Warhol’s ability to use his persona itself as an artistic medium. As he admitted a few years later, “I’d prefer to remain a mystery. I never like to give my background, and anyway, I make it all up different every time I'm asked.”

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 22

Black Hole
Toshiko Takaezu (American
1922–2011)

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 21

Statuette of a Female Figure
Cycladic; probably from the island of Keros

Cycladic sculpture is characterized by the abstract treatment of the human form. The vast majority of Cycladic white marble statuettes depict pregnant females, suggesting an association with fertility or regenerative forces. Although they are admired today for their stark simplicity, these statuettes once had hair, eyes, jewelry, or other ornaments added in red, blue, and black pigment, which has since faded.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 20

Cobalt Blue
Toshiko Takaezu (American
1922–2011)

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 19

Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene)
John Singleton Copley (American
1738–1815)

John Singleton Copley garnered considerable success as a portrait painter before the Revolutionary War. The sitter here, Mary Greene Hubbard, was a member of Boston’s merchant class. Her pose, gown, and background were precisely copied from a British engraving of a noblewoman, yet Copley distinguished the work as his own by capturing Hubbard’s unique features and the luxurious fabrics she wears.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 18

Desert Forms
Hughie Lee-Smith (American
1915–1999)

Hughie Lee-Smith here conjures an unsettling scene. Anonymous figures, disconnected from one another, face away from the viewer amid austere terrain. The artist often placed enigmatic people in bleak landscapes, aligning these visualizations with his experiences as an African American: “Unconsciously it has a lot to do with a sense of alienation . . . and in all blacks there is an awareness of their isolation from the mainstream of society.”

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Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 17

The Pine of Success and Onmayagashi, Asakusa River (Asakusagawa shubi no matsu Oumayagashi), from the series One Hundred Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重
Japanese
1797-1858

This print depicts a scene on the Sumida River, also known as the Asakusa River. The sun has set and the stars are already appearing in the clear sky of early evening. To the left is the famous Pine of Success, a tree that symbolized visitors’ desires to get their money’s worth in the nearby pleasure quarters of the Yoshiwara. In the lower left corner of the image, a roofed boat sits with its green blinds lowered, the figure of a woman silhouetted behind them. She must not be alone: two pairs of clogs are just visible in the prow.

Art Picture of the Day @artpod.bsky.social · May 16

Landscape with the Ruins of the Castle of Egmond
Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch
1628/29-1682)

The deteriorating Castle of Egmond was a visible reminder of the Dutch struggle for independence: it was sacrificially destroyed during the revolt against Spain more than 80 years before Jacob van Ruisdael produced this painting. Landscape specialists like Van Ruisdael invoked Dutch patriotism by selecting sites representative of the republic, including ruins, windmills, and city views.