Michael Lobel
@mlobelart.bsky.social
Professor of Art History, Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center. I look at things and then write about them.
Author of Van Gogh and the End of Nature, from Yale University Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274363/van-g
Author of Van Gogh and the End of Nature, from Yale University Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274363/van-g
Folks, this morning let me introduce you to 18th-century sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, best known for his series of so-called "character heads"
November 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Folks, this morning let me introduce you to 18th-century sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, best known for his series of so-called "character heads"
Ed Ruscha, OOF, 1962-63 www.moma.org/collection/w...
November 10, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Ed Ruscha, OOF, 1962-63 www.moma.org/collection/w...
Vincent van Gogh, Worn Out, 1882 www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collectio...
November 9, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Vincent van Gogh, Worn Out, 1882 www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collectio...
Organizers of effort to save the historic Wilbur J. Cohen building in DC—dubbed “the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal”—have made available social media graphics for spreading the word. Please post & share accordingly
November 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Organizers of effort to save the historic Wilbur J. Cohen building in DC—dubbed “the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal”—have made available social media graphics for spreading the word. Please post & share accordingly
Jacob Lawrence in his Coast Guard uniform (with USCG Capt. Joseph S. Rosenthal & photographer Carl Van Vechten) at wartime exhibition of his work at Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1944
November 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Jacob Lawrence in his Coast Guard uniform (with USCG Capt. Joseph S. Rosenthal & photographer Carl Van Vechten) at wartime exhibition of his work at Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1944
Jacob Lawrence, "War Series: Another Patrol," 1946 whitney.org/collection/w...
November 9, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Jacob Lawrence, "War Series: Another Patrol," 1946 whitney.org/collection/w...
As antidote to current US government's reprehensible erasure of Black soldiers' WWII contributions, here's Jacob Lawrence's "Beachhead," 1947, a work in his larger War series. Lawrence himself served in WWII as an artist on the US military's first racially integrated ship whitney.org/collection/w...
November 9, 2025 at 2:35 PM
As antidote to current US government's reprehensible erasure of Black soldiers' WWII contributions, here's Jacob Lawrence's "Beachhead," 1947, a work in his larger War series. Lawrence himself served in WWII as an artist on the US military's first racially integrated ship whitney.org/collection/w...
If you're not familiar with Brumsic Brandon Jr., creator of long-running comic strip "Luther," here's a classic single panel by him from 1977
November 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
If you're not familiar with Brumsic Brandon Jr., creator of long-running comic strip "Luther," here's a classic single panel by him from 1977
Two more by Brumsic Brandon Jr. from Freedomways (1981)
November 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Two more by Brumsic Brandon Jr. from Freedomways (1981)
For folks too young to remember, this panel references an infamous episode when Nancy Reagan spent $200,000 on White House china at nearly $1,000 per place setting
November 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM
For folks too young to remember, this panel references an infamous episode when Nancy Reagan spent $200,000 on White House china at nearly $1,000 per place setting
For insight into current Republican policies look no further than these scathing 1980s panels by leading African-American cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr., highlighting Ronald Reagan's war against poor & needy. On recent archives visit came across these in African-American journal Freedomways (thread)
November 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM
For insight into current Republican policies look no further than these scathing 1980s panels by leading African-American cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr., highlighting Ronald Reagan's war against poor & needy. On recent archives visit came across these in African-American journal Freedomways (thread)
Adorable animal-themed public art on the NYC subway (5th Ave & 59th Street N/R/W station) by artist Ann Schaumburger to start off an early Sunday morning www.mta.info/agency/arts-...
November 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Adorable animal-themed public art on the NYC subway (5th Ave & 59th Street N/R/W station) by artist Ann Schaumburger to start off an early Sunday morning www.mta.info/agency/arts-...
See also: Marsden Hartley, Sundown by the Ruins, 1942 whitney.org/collection/w...
November 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
See also: Marsden Hartley, Sundown by the Ruins, 1942 whitney.org/collection/w...
Edward Hopper, Study of a Sunset, 1895-99 whitney.org/collection/w...
November 7, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Edward Hopper, Study of a Sunset, 1895-99 whitney.org/collection/w...
Thanks to this morning's Bluesky discourse I'm suddenly thinking about this 1971 letter from artist Nancy Spero to critic Lucy Lippard www.si.edu/object/nancy...
November 6, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Thanks to this morning's Bluesky discourse I'm suddenly thinking about this 1971 letter from artist Nancy Spero to critic Lucy Lippard www.si.edu/object/nancy...
Richard Artschwager, The Book, 1973. Artschwager was an artist who consistently followed his own path, making it exceedingly difficult to classify his art within existing categories
November 6, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Richard Artschwager, The Book, 1973. Artschwager was an artist who consistently followed his own path, making it exceedingly difficult to classify his art within existing categories
And here's a much more famous artist's ode to potatoes: Vincent van Gogh, "Still Life with Potatoes," 1886-87 www.boijmans.nl/en/collectio...
November 6, 2025 at 12:25 AM
And here's a much more famous artist's ode to potatoes: Vincent van Gogh, "Still Life with Potatoes," 1886-87 www.boijmans.nl/en/collectio...
And here is another Artschwager ode to the humble potato, "Untitled (Potatoes IV)," 1997, from the collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta high.org/collection/u...
November 6, 2025 at 12:25 AM
And here is another Artschwager ode to the humble potato, "Untitled (Potatoes IV)," 1997, from the collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta high.org/collection/u...
darth, do you and @nora.zone know about the artist Richard Artschwager? Here's his "Untitled (Potatoes V)," 1997, in the collection of the Guggenheim Bilbao www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitio...
November 6, 2025 at 12:25 AM
darth, do you and @nora.zone know about the artist Richard Artschwager? Here's his "Untitled (Potatoes V)," 1997, in the collection of the Guggenheim Bilbao www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitio...
The MetLife building (formerly the Pan Am building) on Park Avenue will be replaced by a massive melting Good Humor bar
November 5, 2025 at 10:08 PM
The MetLife building (formerly the Pan Am building) on Park Avenue will be replaced by a massive melting Good Humor bar
Here's another one, just because: Allan Rohan Crite, illustration from Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven, 1937
November 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Here's another one, just because: Allan Rohan Crite, illustration from Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven, 1937
Andy Warhol, Hammer & Sickle, 1977 crystalbridges.emuseum.com/objects/3647...
November 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Andy Warhol, Hammer & Sickle, 1977 crystalbridges.emuseum.com/objects/3647...
More holiness in the everyday, in a scene I imagine some academics might treasure: choirs of yellow-robed angels appearing over a college campus. The show, at Gardner Museum through mid-January, is complemented by a concurrent Crite show at the Boston Athenaeum www.gardnermuseum.org/allan-rohan-...
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 PM
More holiness in the everyday, in a scene I imagine some academics might treasure: choirs of yellow-robed angels appearing over a college campus. The show, at Gardner Museum through mid-January, is complemented by a concurrent Crite show at the Boston Athenaeum www.gardnermuseum.org/allan-rohan-...
Two Allan Rohan Crite self-portraits, one early and one late
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Two Allan Rohan Crite self-portraits, one early and one late