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phoenixmcarthur
@mmcarthur.bsky.social
3.6K followers 510 following 9.2K posts
Once an artist, always an artist, poetry junkie, wishful potter, voracious reader, lover of Indie and Obscure Rock, Jazz, Classical, Science & always the Resistance. 🧷💪 #ArtHeals
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phoenixmcarthur @mmcarthur.bsky.social · Oct 13
"We have art so that we shall not die of reality." - Friedrich Nietzsche
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Bright Auroras over Stonehenge last night. 🌌

Some info:
Red auroras occur about 125–250 miles high,
Green about 60–90 miles high, and Pink around 55–75 miles above Earth’s surface.
November 13, 2025 at 5:42 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Jamie Wyeth (American, b. 1946) :
Andy Warhol, Talking With Pat, 1976

Gouache and graphite on toned paperboard
10⅛ x 11¾ in. | 25.7 x 29.8 cm.

The 1970s saw Jamie Wyeth working in New York in the epicenter of art, fashion, and high society.

More info in the alt text 👇
He was introduced to Andy Warhol by the photographer and socialite Peter Beard, and in 1976, Warhol and Wyeth painted each other's portraits. Over the next 4 years, Wyeth enjoyed 2 extended residencies at the Factory, participated in four exhibitions, and shared an exhibition catalogue with Andy Warhol. Jamie Wyeth's portraits of his Factory days are more loosely rendered and casual in mood. His sketches of Warhol on brown cardboard are freely handled and capture a casual snapshot aesthetic typical of the Factory, but unique in Wyeth's work.
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
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Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947) :
Garden, 1935

Oil on canvas
35.5 × 35-5/8 in | 90.2 × 90.5 cm

The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
November 13, 2025 at 5:02 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
George Grosz -
Sonniges Land: Kindergedichte
(Sunny Land: Poems for children), 1920

watercolor
16.5 x 11.5 in. | 41.8 x 29.3 cm.

The cover for Sonniges Land: Kindergedichte, Berlin: Paul Cassirer (1920), a book of children’s verse by Bruno Schönlank.
November 13, 2025 at 7:38 AM
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Ramon Casas :
Joven decadente,
(Decadent young woman after the dance), 1899

Oil on canvas | 18.3 x 22 in

Museum of Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain

Further description in the alt text 👇
The title tells us that this is a ‘young decadent’ woman spread out on the couch, seemingly in bliss, after a long night out. What makes this painting so radical for it’s time, is that it shows a much more naturalistic, uninhibited femininity. We can imagine this young lady returning home and immediately throwing herself into a comfortable position, her feet sore from dancing and her mind elsewhere. She’s doing something which would at the time have been considered unladylike, and yet it’s deeply relatable. Another feature that makes this painting stand out, is the original and vibrant use of color. The little yellow notebook contrasts beautifully with the creamy green of the cushions, and the woman’s midnight blue dress makes her lipstick stand out in bold red. Remember, this painting was produced at a time when women were expected to be formally ‘represented’ in society once they reached a suitable age to be married. And wealthy young women were even expected to pose for portraits that could then be sent to agreeable suitors. Whereas in this painting, we see a realistic depiction of the kind of contented fatigue one experiences after returning home. one of the central characteristics of ‘realist’ art, and indeed what makes it modernist, is that it depicts the private sphere, in which women were not expected to pose or present themselves as idealized subjects. And then there’s the superb depiction of her body language. Look at the way she’s lying halfway between the floor and the cushions. How her neck disappears into the folds of her dress. Her hips are raised in that way one does when one is trying to avoid putting one’s shoes on the couch. The title may indicate that this is a ‘decadent’ woman, but what makes her decadent isn’t her morals, it’s her relaxation.
November 13, 2025 at 6:22 AM
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Richard Anuszkiewicz (1830-1920) :
The Fourth of the Three, 1963

Acrylic on composition board
48-1/16 × 48-1/16 in
122.1 × 122.1 cm

Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
November 12, 2025 at 11:37 PM
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Paul Signac was born otd 162 years ago. 🎂
"Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890"
1890

Museum of Modern Art

Further description in the alt text 👇
Signac’s technique—applying color to the canvas using tiny dots of paint—is known as “Neo-Impressionism.” The Neo-Impressionists renounced the spontaneity of Impressionism, coming to believe that separate touches of pigment result in a greater vibrancy of color than is achieved by the conventional mixing of pigments on the palette. French art critic Félix Fénéon, one of Signac’s early champions, coined the term “Neo-Impressionism” in the late 1880s. The painting shown here is both a portrait of Fénéon and a Neo-Impressionist manifesto: As Fénéon saw it, painting was the creation of a superior and purified reality transfused with the artist’s personality. Félix Fénéon was an editor, translator, art dealer, and anarchist activist and the critic who coined the term Neo-Impressionism to describe the works of Signac and Georges Seurat in the late 1880s. In this portrait, Signac depicted Fénéon in left profile. The lines of the subject’s nose, elbow, and cane descend in a zigzag pattern, like the rhythmic “beats and angles” of the title, and the flower he holds rhymes with the upturned curl of his goatee. Attention to abstract patterns continues in the kaleidoscopic pinwheel of the backdrop, likely an allusion to the aesthetic theory of Charles Henry, the Frenchman whose books on color theory and the “algebra” of visual rhythm Signac had recently illustrated. Fénéon’s relation to the decorative background may be symbolic. In 1887 he had defended the Neo-Impressionists against criticism that their application of paint in uniform dots resembled mosaics or tapestries. “Take a few steps back,” Fénéon urged, and “the technique . . . vanishes; the eye is no longer attracted by anything but that which is essentially painting.” But what was painting’s essence at that historical moment? Was it a means of relaying nature’s ephemeral bloom to the viewer, or the craft of composing paint on canvas? In this portrait, the answer is both, and neither.
November 12, 2025 at 10:58 PM
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Sonya Sklaroff (American, b.1970) :
Summer of Love and Laundry, 2022

Oil on Canvas | 121.9 × 91.4 cm
November 12, 2025 at 8:36 PM
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Jacek Tofil :
stillgeometry 2203, 2022

fine art paper | 100 x 70 cm
November 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
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Jenni Sorkin's lecture titled "Forms and Forums: Women Ceramists, Skill, and the Classroom as Site”

Princeton University Art Museum

Image-
Toshiko Takaezu :
Torso, Blue Black, 1980s

Further info in the alt text 👇
Join us at the Museum for a lecture from visiting art historian Jenni Sorkin. In her lecture titled "Forms and Forums: Women Ceramists, Skill, and the Classroom as Site,” Sorkin explores how twentieth-century women ceramists combined their creative practices with their community work. Introduced by Chief Curator Juliana Ochs Dweck. Jenni Sorkin is department chair and professor in the History of Art & Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Held in conjunction with the exhibition, "Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay." LATE THURSDAYS! Thursday-evening programming is made possible in part by Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970. Image: Toshiko Takaezu, "Torso, Blue Black," 1980s. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of the artist. © Toshiko Takaezu This event is free to all. Learn more at: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/exhibitions-events/events/2025/professor-jenni-sorkin-women-ceramists-2025-11-13
November 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
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Sonia Delaunay-Terk (1885-1979) :
Electric Prisms, 1914

Oil on canvas

Georges Pompidou Center, Paris

Further description in the alt text 👇
Prismes électriques is focused around two large overlapping circles created by arcs or curved forms of primary and secondary colors placed one beside the other. The remainder of the canvas is covered by other areas of color noted in a variety of shapes both geometric, such as arcs, rectangles, and oval-like shapes, more abstract and all connected as if sewn together like a tapestry. This work also exemplifies the way that life influenced Delaunay's art. Apparently she and Robert were walking down the boulevard Saint-Michel when they came upon newly installed electric lamplights. Both artists tried to recreate the impressive glow from these new inventions in their artwork. In this painting, we see how Sonia tried to replicate the way these artificial lights cast colors onto the sidewalk beneath by sketching rapid, semi-circular colored lines.
November 12, 2025 at 4:23 PM
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Paul Tazewell :

"The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago will present Crafting Character: The Costumes of Paul Tazewell — from Jan. 19, 2026, at Griffin Studio.

"This exhibit offers an intimate, immersive look into my creative process..."

Further description in the alt text 👇
"This exhibition offers an intimate and immersive look into my creative process — where story, character, and craft come together to build the visual language of performance. "Alongside some of my most recognized designs — from Glinda’s pink bubble dress in Wicked and King George’s regal suit in Hamilton to Janelle Monáe’s unforgettable MET Gala ensemble — visitors will move through guided rooms, narrated by me, exploring the influences, materials, and ideas that have shaped my journey and deepened my understanding of character through design. "Through sketches, photography, and film, you’ll see how imagination becomes form — and how collaboration and craftsmanship bring story to life. "I’m deeply grateful to @msichicago and to the many artisans, collaborators, and craftspeople whose talent and dedication make this exhibit possible. 📸 : Courtesy of THOM BROWNE.
November 12, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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John William Waterhouse :
Thisbe, 1909

Oil on canvas | 97 x 59 cm

Scene from the story of Thisbe and Pyramus, part of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Set in Babylon, Thisbe falls in love with her neighbor Pyramus, but the 2 are kept apart by their families, bitter rivals and will not allow them to wed. 👇
The young lovers use a crack in a wall shared by their families’ homes to communicate with one another: they profess their love and arrange a meeting near Ninus’s tomb. However, tragic circumstances unfold, Thisbe arrives first. After seeing a lioness approach, she runs away leaving her veil behind. Pyramus arrives later, and wrongly assuming Thisbe fell prey to the lioness, he kills himself by falling on his sword. Thisbe returns to find Pyramus’s body under a mulberry tree. In her grief, she stabs herself with the same sword. It is said that the blood of the lovers seeped into the fruit of the mulberry tree, forever giving the mulberry fruit its unique red color. The story was retold in the late 1300s by Geoffrey Chaucer and in 1595, by Shakespeare in a scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as Romeo and Juliet. The story of Thisbe appealed to the artist: unfulfilled love story ending with the woman transforming to a natural form. In the same decade, he painted Echo and Narcissus (1903), and Apollo and Daphne (1908). Thisbe and its companion painting Lamia (1909) were first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909, and were well received by critics. The unknown model, was a favorite of the artist. In this painting, Thisbe has risen from her loom and is holding her ear to listen to Pyramus through the crack in the wall. In the artist’s time, the loom, weaving, and embroidery were associated with feminine virtue and domesticity. Since the story of Thisbe is set in Babylon, Waterhouse added different Oriental elements to the painting. However, his choices were not well researched or historically accurate: the stool in the foreground and the lotuses on Thisbe’s gown are Egyptian, the window transom in the background is Islamic, the tiles lining the right wall are Ottoman and the flooring appears to be Roman. This mishmash of influences reflects Waterhouse’s broad interest in Eastern cultures, and the desire to evoke the past through these exotic elements.
November 12, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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In 1918, both Edith and Egon Schiele succumbed to the Spanish Flu.

Edith, 25, and 6 months pregnant, passed away first. She was lying in bed when Egon captured her final moments in what would be his last drawing. Just 3 days later, Egon passed away at the age of 28.
Edith Schiele Egon's final drawing was of Edith on her death bed, 3 days before he died. Egon and Edith sitting on a balcony.
November 12, 2025 at 3:25 PM
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🌌 Guide to Aurora Colors
Every shade in the northern lights reveals a secret of the sky:
🌌 Guide to Aurora Colors Every shade in the northern lights reveals a secret of the sky: ♥️ Red — Created by high-altitude oxygen, glowing faintly above 150 miles. Rare and hauntingly beautiful. 💚 Green — The classic aurora color, formed by oxygen lower in the atmosphere — bright, vivid, and most often seen. 💜 Purple / Blue — Produced by nitrogen close to Earth’s surface, shining during the strongest geomagnetic storms. Each light is a pulse of solar energy meeting Earth’s magnetic heart — nature’s most magical connection between Sun and sky. Read more: https://astronomynews.site/?p=563
November 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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Oleksandra Ekster (1882–1949, Ukraine) :
Dancer, 1921
Costume design for "Romeo and Juliet"

gouache, watercolor on paper
November 12, 2025 at 7:29 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert :
Diskussion (Ausschnitt), 1926

Kunstmuseum Bonn
Weimar Era
November 12, 2025 at 7:13 AM
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The 100 "We cannot have art if we don't have rent that artists can afford." - Zoran Mamdani, AFM Local 802 Endorsement
November 12, 2025 at 6:19 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Joan Miró :
Gardener Smoking in the Moonlight, 1939

Oil on burlap
Depicts a gardener in a dreamlike, nocturnal scene illuminated by moonlight. The work is celebrated for capturing a sense of magic and mystery with its vibrant colors and distorted, symbolic forms, typical of Miró's work during that period.
November 12, 2025 at 4:34 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Paula Mela (Finland, b.1992) :
Spring Fox, 2013

Ink, Crayon on Paper
75 × 52.5 cm

Mela's quote in the alt text 👇
"I grew up in Järvenpää, Finland. I still live there and like the town because it is small, everything is close by and it has a cultural buzz. I was 5-years-old when I said I'd like to be an artist. One of my relatives told me that I wanted to be a fairytale illustrator when I was six. "Nowadays I'm mostly a traditional artist, I slowly moved away from the digital art some years ago. My preferred mediums currently are watercolours, coloured pencils and sometimes gouache. I like to build a picture slowly, creating texture with every stroke and being careful..."
November 12, 2025 at 12:35 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Iman Maleki (Iran, b.1976) :
Alone with the Sea, 2008

Oil on canvas | 89 x 70 cm
November 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Keith Bennett
November 11, 2025 at 9:31 PM
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Man Ray (Emmanuel Rudzitsky, 1890-1976) :
Acrobat, 1940-45

Oil on canvas
51.5 x 40.5 cm.

"Painting is directed by the heart through the eye. Photography is directed by the mind through the eye. But desire and love for the subject direct both mediums. One cannot replace the other"

More info 👇
Man Ray had fled war-torn Europe during the summer of 1940, returning to America with just a single suitcase filled with a selection of Rayographs, drawings and watercolours, while the rest of his work remained in Paris. Settling in Hollywood the following year, the artist entered a period of intense creativity as he began to reflect upon his career to date, revisiting and reworking earlier compositions and subjects from his oeuvre. As he explained, it was here in California that he "could now concentrate on the long-range project of re-establishing myself as a painter. There was plenty to do. Besides the reconstruction of apparently lost works, I had sketches and notes for new ones which I hadn’t had time to realise in Paris" (quoted in R. Penrose, Man Ray, London 1975, p. 149). Dating from 1940-1945, "Acrobat" appears to fall into this final category of innovative works, and reveals the direction of Man Ray’s thoughts at the height of his Hollywood years, as he returned to his explorations of pure geometric form as a means of expression. As with many of his abstract compositions of these years, Man Ray takes as his starting point a figurative motif, in this case the architecture of the human figure, seated on a slightly tilting surface, with their knees pulled up towards their chest. Reducing the figure to a series of flat planes, each filled with bright hues of colour, Man Ray explores a complex interplay of 2- and 3-dimensional form, figuration and abstraction, revealing the continued influence of Cubism and Orphism on his painterly vocabulary.
November 11, 2025 at 2:07 PM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner :
View of Basel and the Rhine, 1927-28
November 11, 2025 at 6:24 AM
mmcarthur.bsky.social
Franz Kafka : Amerika, 1955

Cover art : Edward Gorey
November 11, 2025 at 6:18 AM