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Collage in blue and orange tones depicting flowers, mugs and a few other abstract shapes
Feminine/Masculine: The Collages of Picasso, Braque, and Gris
How did Cubist artists use collage to probe the relationship between the sexes?
Elizabeth Cowling
November 8, 2022
Two people looking to the left with a camera against trees.
Video
The Bechers in Ohio, 1987
Watch a silent film of the photographer couple, Bernd and Hilla Becher, on a road trip through the American heartland.
Max Becher
November 1, 2022
Irving Penn's "The Tarot Reader (Bridget Tichenor and Jean Patchett), New York" with two women in stylist black clothing reading tarot cards with a diagram of a hand behind them
Immaterial: The Tarot Reader
“At first glance, this Irving Penn photo looks like it could be its own tarot card.”
Alexander Chee
September 28, 2022
A metallic black and gold texture
Audio
Immaterial: Metals, Part Two
Let’s talk about the metals that break the rules.
August 31, 2022
A three-quarter view of a patinated copper and silver chocolate pot in the shape of a pitcher with a handle, spot, and ivory handle. Silver banding emphasizes the handle, spout, and rim of the lid and neck. A lobster rendered in high-relief silver adorns the body of the pot.
Patinating Copper
A process by which chemicals are used to purposefully induce the formation of a thin colored layer on the surface of metal, referred to as chemical patination.
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022
A flat cigarette case and a tall match case in a matching wood grain pattern rendered in deep red, black, brown, and gold metals.
Mokume-gane
An ancient Japanese metalworking technique, translated to mean wood eye or wood grain, by which layers of contrasting colored metals are fused together with heat and pressure and worked to produce a patterned mixed-metal laminate.
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022
A pair of black iron candlesticks with a tapered conical base appear side-by-side. They are adorned with various sinuous floral motives that are modeled in low relief on the surface and surfaced in a variety of silver-, gold-, and copper-toned metals.
Damascening
To produce a design or pattern by inlaying a softer metal into a harder one — often gold, silver, or copper into a darkened steel background.
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022
Detail of a silver tray featuring the design of a frog seated at the edge of a grassy pond with a queue of mosquitos approaching from a setting sun on the horizon. The surface has a hexagonal-shaped texture. The grass and mosquitoes protrude in a low relief on the tray surface. The front is more heavily sculpted and plated with mixed metals that are silver, gold, and copper in tone.
An Introduction to Metalworking at Tiffany & Co.
How did Tiffany & Co. become an innovator of metalworking techniques in the nineteenth century?
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022
A silver, blue, and maroon cylindrical cup with a handle rests on a matching saucer. The cup and saucer are reflective and adorned with an inlay design of a checkerboard pattern of wavy triangle shapes.
Electrolytic Inlay
A decorative technique that uses an electric current to deposit metal particles from an electrolytic solution into designated recesses on a metal object.
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022
A pair of dazzling gilded and enameled cups and saucers adorned with floral designs, a coat of arms, and monogram.
Electrolytic Etching
A process that eats into designated areas of a material's surface through the application of acids or an electrical current.
Medill Higgins Harvey, Moira Gallagher, and Anne Grady
August 24, 2022