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firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
First Amendment Girl
@firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.4K following 3K posts
Retired librarian, lifelong Democrat, 2nd Wave Feminist, living in Land of Enchantment. Art soothes my political anxiety.
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firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Indians Spear Fishing by Albert Bierstadt, 1862, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX)

#ArtHistory #HudsonRiverSchool #Luminism
Landscape as a form of theater and spectacle culminated in 19th-century American art with the work of Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt. Both artists emigrated from Europe at young ages and went on to achieve success as interpreters of the American West. The new, epic landscape they depicted functioned as a national symbol of grandeur and promise, yet at the same time it served as rumination on the subject of nature and the divinity to be found within it. Bierstadt first left the East Coast to travel west in 1859, accompanying a government-sponsored trip from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. Compiled from close observation, sketches, and stereoscopic views taken on the expedition, "Indians Spear Fishing" portrays the West as a pristine, sublime wilderness that seemingly could be found only in the Bible's Book of Genesis. Within a compressed space, Bierstadt draws together barren rock formations, towering waterfalls, spindly trees, crystalline water reflecting rocky outcrops, and a peak that pierces the wispy and moisture-laden clouds, turning to mist below. In the brightly lit foreground near the shore, a boat filled with three Native Americans provides scale and identifies the location as unmistakably that of the West; the boat laden with furs spells the riches of the land.
November 15, 2025 at 1:20 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Hey Albuquerque, I just saw a bunch of ICE stormtroopers with guns standing around inside the Lowe's on Juan Tabo

Beware!
November 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Gleaners Coming Home by Sir George Clausen, 1904, Tate Britain (London, UK)

#ArtHistory #Realism
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from fields after harvest. The right to glean fields was reserved for people experiencing poverty. It became a popular subject in Victorian art but was often romanticised. This picture of women and children burdened with heavy loads, is set in Essex. Their hardship is apparent in their stances and empty gazes. Contemporary critics, however, mostly focused on Clausen's style: 'they carry the sun wth them as they walk: they are absorbed in heat and colour" (Pall Mall Gazette). Clausen dedicated his art to painting scenes of rural life.
November 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
El violonchelista Juan de Azurmendi by Ignacio Zuloaga, 1908, Colección Banco de España (Madrid, Spain)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Realism
This portrait depicts the renowned Basque cellist Juan de Azurmendi, a prominent figure in the revival of Basque culture and music at the beginning of the 20th century. Zuloaga portrays Azurmendi with a powerful and imposing presence, emphasizing his strong character and artistic dedication. The cellist is shown in a three-quarter length pose, seated and holding his instrument. The dark, somber background and the use of earthy tones contribute to the painting's dramatic and introspective mood. The composition focuses on the cellist's face and hands, highlighting his expressive features and the skill with which he plays. The painting is a testament to Zuloaga's skill in capturing the essence of his subjects and his interest in portraying individuals who embodied the spirit of Spain. Zuloaga was a leading figure in the Spanish Modernismo movement, a period characterized by a revival of interest in Spanish traditions and a rejection of academic art. His work bridges the gap between 19th-century realism and early 20th-century expressionism. This painting, created in 1908, falls within a period of significant artistic experimentation and change in Europe, as artists began to explore new forms of expression and challenge traditional artistic conventions. Zuloaga's focus on Spanish subjects and his distinctive style contributed to the development of a uniquely Spanish artistic identity.
November 14, 2025 at 12:57 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
I'm sorry Fetterm had a fall, but after 54 days of doing nothing, why is he strolling around Braddock? He is a so terrible.
November 13, 2025 at 6:54 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Peach Packing, Spartanburg County by Wenonah Bell, 1936, The Johnson Collection (Spartanburg. SC)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #SocialRealism
This oil painting depicts African-American women working in a peach packing shed in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The scene shows the women sorting and packing peaches into crates, highlighting the labor-intensive process of peach production. The composition focuses on the workers and their activity, emphasizing the importance their contribution to the local economy. The painting is characterized by its realistic style and attention to detail, capturing the atmosphere and conditions of the packing shed.
November 13, 2025 at 2:58 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Vase with Zinnias and Other Flowers by Vincent van Gogh, 1891, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Canada)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Realism
Painted in the final months of Van Gogh's life, "Vase with Zinnias and Other Flowers" represents a culmination of his Post-Impressionist style. It reflects the influence of Japanese woodblock prints, which he admired for their bold outlines and flat planes of color. The work stands as a testament to his continued exploration of still life as a means of expressing emotion and capturing the beauty of the natural world, even during a period of intense personal struggle. It is part of a series of still lifes he created while at Auvers-sur-Oise, shortly before his death, and demonstrates a shift towards more decorative and expressive arrangements.
November 13, 2025 at 1:06 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Woolworth Building No. 28 by John Marin, 1912, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Expressionism
A towering skyscraper zooms up and away from us in this loosely painted, vertical watercolor. People and buildings crowding the bottom third of the composition are painted in almost abstract shapes in tones of lapis and slate blue, harvest yellow, garnet red. In the center of the composition, the lower two-thirds of the Woolworth Building are lined with ghostly rows of pale blue and brown windows over mostly blank, cream-white paper. The top third of the building is painted with more saturated violet and smoky purple beneath a coral red tip. Slashes and swishes in pastel peach, blue, and yellow fill the sky.
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Poppyseed Cake: Glazed for Calypso by Mary Pratt, 1976, Concordia University (Montreal, Canada)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Photorealism
A hyperrealistic oil painting depicting poppyseed cake, sliced and partially eaten, resting on a floral patterned tablecloth. The cake is glazed with a shimmering, almost iridescent sheen, and the composition is tightly cropped, focusing intensely on the texture and detail of the cake and its surroundings. The lighting is dramatic, creating strong highlights and shadows that emphasize the cake's form and the folds of the tablecloth. A small, partially peeled orange sits beside the cake.
November 12, 2025 at 12:48 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
The Bolshevik by Boris Kustodiev, 1918, The Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt ##ArtNouveau
The painting depicts a large, imposing Bolshevik figure striding forward with confidence and determination. He is dressed in dark overcoat and hat, and his face is stern and resolute. The background is blurred and indistinct, suggesting the chaos and upheaval of the Russian Revolution. The figure dominates the composition, conveying a sense of power and inevitability. Kustodiev uses limited color palette, primarily dark tones, to emphasize the seriousness and gravity of the subject matter. The painting is characterized by its monumental scale and expressive brushwork.
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Faun, Horse and Bird by Pablo Picasso, 1936, Musée Picass (Paris, France)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #NeoClassicist #Surrealism
This artwork depicts a complex and fragmented scene featuring a faun, a horse, and bird, rendered in Picasso's characteristic Cubist style. The figures are broken down into geometric shapes and reassembled in a non-naturalistic manner, creating a sense of dynamism and ambiguity. The composition is characterized by overlapping planes and a limited color palette, primarily consisting of blues, greens, and browns. The faun, a mythological creature part human and part goat, is central to the composition, interacting with the horse and bird in a symbolic and enigmatic way. The work explores themes o of mythology, nature, and the relationship between humans and animals.
November 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Reforestation by Emily Carr, 1936, McMichael Canadian Art Collection(Vaughan, ON, Canada)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Cubism #Post-Impressionism
The artwork depicts a rejuvenating forest scene with vibrant and dynamic elements. Dominant hues of green and earthy tones characterize the painting, intricately depicting the natural landscape with re-emerging trees and lush foliage. The composition is layered with stylized forms and swirls, indicative of Carr’s unique blend of Cubist sharpness and Post-Impressionistic fluidity. The mountainous backdrop looms in rugged, geometric forms, while the foreground is animated with undulating patterns and textures, celebrating the vitality and resurgence of nature.
November 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
The History of Medicine in Mexico: The People’s Demand for Better Health by
Diego Rivera, 1953, Hospital de la Raza (Mexico City, Mexico)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #MexicanModernism #Allegory

For more on this mural, see www.academia.edu/90146416/Die...
November 9, 2025 at 3:58 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
A Landing Along Grand Canal, Venice by Jane Peterson, 1910, San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio, TX)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Impressionism
Flat strokes of the palette knife define the reflection of forms in the waters of Venice's Grand Canal. Meanwhile, the abstracted forms of the passengers in the gondola and the palazzos, trees and cathedral beyond them show the dissolution of solid forms in the shimmering light and watery atmosphere of the famous ltalian city on the water. Peterson abandoned the security of a career as an art teacher in favor of travel abroad. Through contact with modernist collectors such as Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo and artists such as Pablo Picasso, she learned a new way of seeing the world. This experience was honed by studies with the Spanish Impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla. Through explorations of Italy, France, Egypt, and North Africa, she developed a bold visual language well-suited to representing the exotic locales with which she delighted American viewers back home.
November 9, 2025 at 1:16 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
I love our Governor
New Mexicans to get full SNAP benefits for November
Families should receive full benefits on November 8 or their regularly scheduled date.
koat.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:34 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Our Next President by Currier and Ives, 1860, Springfield Museums (Springfield, MA)

#ArtHistory #Romanticism
This lithograph depicts Lincoln shortly before his inauguration as the 16th President of the United States. He is shown in three-quarter pose, wearing a dark suit and bow tie, with a serious expression. The background is a simple, neutral tone. The print is notable for its relatively realistic portrayal of Lincoln, contrasting with some of the more idealized depictions of political figures at the time. It was a popular print during the 1860 election and early presidency, capitalizing on Lincoln's rising fame and the nation's anticipation of his leadership.
November 8, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by First Amendment Girl
jackiecalmes.bsky.social
Column: A gilded White House, Gatsbyesque parties, crypto-grift. Trump won two elections on his appeal to working class voters, but he seems utterly out of touch, enjoying his personal Golden Age as voters struggle with costs he vowed to contain. They've noticed.
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Column: Trump's tone-deaf displays are turning off voters
The president faced poetic comeuppance after his ostentatious party: a blue wave in Tuesday’s elections.
www.latimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
A Cup, A Bowl, A Chianti Bottle by
Edwin Dickinson, 1924, Private Collection

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Expressionism
This still life depicts a cup, a bowl, and a Chianti bottle arranged on a table. The painting is characterized by its unusual perspective, flattened space, and meticulous detail. Dickinson employs a muted palette, focusing on subtle variations tone and texture to create a sense of quiet intimacy. The objects are rendered with a precise, almost photographic realism, yet the overall effect is not one of simple imitation but of a carefully constructed and emotionally resonant image. The composition is deliberately unbalanced, contributing to a feeling of unease and psychological tension.
November 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Arabian Coffee House by Henri Matisse, 1913, Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Fauvism
This work has been described as the most important painting in Matisse's Moroccan cycle. Executed in the early part of 1913, it was acquired by the Moscow collector Sergey Shchukin later that year. He wrote to Matisse "I love [the painting] now more than the others and I look at it for no less than an hour at a time." Before us is the epitome of absolute inner peace; the still figures are cut off from the world around, as if they had lost consciousness of their bodily weight. They are grouped around two central elements: the glass aquarium with the goldfish in the foreground and the musical instrument being played in the background. These two objects are the origin of the meditative state which holds the figures in its power. This state of enchantment is perfectly matched by the magic of the expansive space of the turquoise colour and the calm light grey of the figures, set off by patches of warm ochre. The painting evolved slowly. At first it contained more concrete observations of nature and greater variety in colour, but gradually everything superfluous was removed and Matisse used his expressive simplification to capture the Spirit of the East.
November 7, 2025 at 12:53 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Gassed by John Singer Sargent, 1919,
Imperial War Museums (London, UK)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Impressionism
The scene is the aftermath of a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918 as witnessed by the artist. Mustard gas was an indiscriminate weapon causing widespread injury and burns, as well as affecting the eyes. The painting gives clues about the management of the victims, their relative lack of protective clothing, the impact and extent of the gas attack as well as its routine nature - the soccer (football) game goes on behind the soldiers regardless. The canvas is lightly painted with great skill. Sargent draws the viewer into the tactile relationships between the blinded men. There is a suggestion of redemption as the men are led off to the medical tents, but the overall impression is of loss and suffering, emphasised by the expressions of the men standing in line. In sharp contrast to the victims, the football players are physically and visually co-ordinated and have a full kit. Sargent was commissioned by the British Government to contribute the central painting for a Hall of Remembrance for World War One. He was given the theme of "Anglo- American co-operation" but was unable to find suitable subject matter and chose this scene instead. "The further forward one goes," he wrote, "the more scattered and meagre everything is. The nearer to danger, the fewer and more hidden the men - the more dramatic the situation, the more it becomes an empty landscape. The Ministry of Information expects an epic - and how can one do an epic without masses of men?"
November 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
The People of Puerto Rico is Justly Indebted by Carolina Caycedo, 2020, MAC - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (San Juan, PR)

#ArtHistory #ContemporaryArt
Caycedo is a multidisciplinary artist known for her performances, videos, artist's books, sculptures, and installations. Her works showcase territorial resistance, environmental justice, and solidarity economies through an embodied knowledge and indigenous and feminist frameworks in order to confront thne colonial gaze. In this selection of Puerto Rico-related works from the Distressed Debt series, Caycedo demonstrates the symbolic power of the images used to sell bonds to investors and, eventually, to predatory hedge funds: distressed debt investors who prey on debtors by buying cheap bonds on the secondary market while expecting large returns.
November 6, 2025 at 1:18 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
I am moved but have not been able to find almost anything I want easily for so long now that it's turned into Yosemite Sam. I've said this at least 4 times today. I cuss. A lot. But my cussing deteriorates to the 1890s when I'm super frustrated
November 5, 2025 at 6:58 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Landscape of Havana by Rene Portocarrero, 1945, Private Collection(?)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #CubanModernism
"Landscape of Havana" is a vibrant and atmospheric depiction of the Cuban capital. The painting showcases Portocarrero's signature style, characterized by bold colors, expressive brushstrokes, and a focus on light and shadow. It captures a sense of the city's energy and romanticism, with architectural elements blending into the lush tropical surroundings. The artwork is not a precise topographical representation but rather an impressionistic interpretation of Havana's unique character.
November 5, 2025 at 3:16 PM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Detail of St. Catherine from Virgin and Child with Saints, Altarpiece of San Barnabas by Sandro Botticelli, 1491, Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy)

#ArtHistory #EarlyRenaissance
This detail focuses on Saint Catherine, depicted as a beautiful young woman with flowing golden hair and a richly decorated dress. She holds a book, symbolizing her learning and intellectual pursuits, and a palm branch, representing her martyrdom. Botticelli's characteristic linear style is evident in the delicate outlines and graceful forms. The saint's expression is serene and contemplative, reflecting her piety and devotion. The overall effect is one of refined elegance and spiritual depth. The painting is part of a larger altarpiece commissioned for the church of San Barnabas in Florence.
November 5, 2025 at 1:42 AM
firstamendmentgirl.bsky.social
Women in the Garden by Claude Monet, 1866, Musée d'Orsay (Paris, France)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #Impressionism

See www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/... for museum's text on restoration; see www.napoleon.org/en/history-o... for more on the painting.
November 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM