essayArt
Witty wotty dashes
Doodles are the emanations of our pixillated minds, freewheeling into dissociation, graphology, and radical openness
James Reath
videoHistory of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
videoNature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
videoArt
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
videoArt
Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus
8 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
essayArt
Out of the fog
It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?
Gianluca Didino
essayArt
The ecstatic swoon
As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead
Robert D Zaretsky
videoArt
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
videoEarth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
videoNature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
videoStories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
videoArt
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
essayPsychiatry and psychotherapy
The art in the analyst’s room
The consulting office reflects the personality of the therapist, while also subtly shaping the experience of their patients
Anna Parker
videoGender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
16 minutes
videoDesign and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
14 minutes
videoArt
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
videoBeauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
essayArt
Threads of resistance
Knitting and embroidery are laden with stereotypes of domestic femininity – and the subversive potential for protest
Gemma McKenzie
videoBeauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
videoArt
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes
videoArt
A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size
5 minutes
videoArt
The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles
7 minutes
essayDesign and fashion
When luxury is good
The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care
Roger Tredre