In a revolt against rationalism, Romanticism sought to return to nature and the belief in the goodness of humanity, with the artist considered to be a profoundly individual creator. Beginning in the early 19th century, Romantic ideals developed......

Surreptitious messages, concealed myths, and historical truths lie hidden in the great works of the Italian Renaissance, behind heavy gold leaf and religious symbology. Although often obscured by the archaic language of historical painting, careful......

May 1884 saw the publication in Paris of a fin de siecle novel that became a perverse sensation on the European cultural scene. A Rebours (translated both as Against the Grain and Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans was written as a seductive......

From Berlin to Beirut, David Chipperfield (born 1953) aspires to an architecture founded on collaboration, ideas, and excellence. His buildings are intended as physically immediate spaces in which “a sort of ordinariness” becomes remarkable, and by......

With Salvador Dalí as its figurehead, the great ship of Surrealism traversed the turbulent seas of the early twentieth century with sails billowing with dreams and desires. Inspired by the psychoanalytical practice of Sigmund Freud, the......

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is hailed as the most important proponent of the Pop Art movement. A critical and creative observer of American society, he explored key themes of consumerism, materialism, media, and celebrity. Drawing on contemporary......