Tag Archives: Visual Arts

August 10, 1846~ U.S. Senate establishes the Smithsonian Institution

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Model for Seated Statue of James Smithson by Gutzon Borglum

1904 / 27 1/8”x10 1/8”x11 1/2” / Painted plaster / Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC

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In 1826, three years before his death, Smithson penned his own will directing that his fortune be left to his nephew, Henry James Dickinson, son of his brother, Henry Louis Dickinson. Smithson also implicitly requested that the nephew adopt the family name Hungerford, which he did if only for a brief time.

Smithson further stipulated that:

“In the case of the death of my said Nephew without leaving a child or children, or the death of the child or children he may have had under the age of twenty-one years or intestate, I then bequeath the whole of my property… to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men”.
https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/stories/james-smithson-founder-smithsonian-institution

August 6, 2012~ NASA’s rover Curiosity successfully lands on Mars

Posted in African American Visual Artists, Black American Visual Artists, On This Date, Women Artists by

Mars Dust by Alma Thomas

1972 / Acrylic on canvas / 69 1/4”x57 1/8” / Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

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Link: 50 Years Ago, Alma Thomas Made ‘Space’ Paintings that Imagined the Moon and Mars

Previous August 6 posts:

Self Portraits~August 6

August 6, 1945: Enola Gay drops 5-ton bomb over Hiroshima

Andy Warhol: Born August 6, 1928

Artist Birthday Quiz for 8/6~

August 2, 1864~ First running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course

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Portrait of the Thoroughbred Kentucky (detail)
by Edward Troye

c.1866 / Oil on canvas / 31”x38 3/4” / Image: Wikipedia, Gooreen Collection, Public Domain

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Previous August 2 posts:

Self Portraits~August 2

Auguste Bartholdi: Born on August 2, 1834

Artist Birthday Quiz for 8/2~

August 1, 1944~ Warsaw Uprising against the German occupation is launched

Posted in On This Date, Women Artists by

Portrait of a Boy in Glasses  by Gela Seksztajn

c.1932-1943 / Watercolor on paper / 27 1/2”x19” / Ringelblum Archive

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The work of the painter Gela Seksztajn~
https://www.jhi.pl/en/articles/to-bring-out-the-beauty-of-every-child,497
Gela Seksztajn was a Polish-Jewish artist and painter. She is known mostly for her paintings hidden within the Ringelblum Archive in the Warsaw Ghetto. Depicting people was her main focus. She also painted still lifes, landscapes, and nudes. It is believed she died during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Gela Seksztajn left more than 300 drawings and paintings; most of them can be found in the Jewish Historical Institute, although there are a few in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC and one oil painting in the Yad Vashem Art Collection.

Previous August 1 posts:

Self Portraits~August 1

Artist Birthday Quiz for 8/1~