I love talking about art history.

Although I’m currently working with contemporary art, I love to ramble on about art history to anyone who will listen. As a result, my friends sometimes come to me with questions about it. Like, “Was Picasso a Surrealist?” (No.) “Were Monet and Manet the same person?” (No, but they knew each other very well.) “Was Leonardo da Vinci gay?” (Well, he was arrested for having sex with men, so make of that what you will.) These are the sorts of questions I’m interested in on this blog.

One of the things I don’t like about art history is that many people are excluded from it. It’s not taught thoroughly at most high schools, it’s a university degree for those who are not in need of a high-paying job, and it has a language that you can’t participate in unless you’ve been specifically educated in it.

While most people can “read” movies (that is, can recognize tropes, character clichés and genres), the ability to “read” artworks is not common knowledge like it once was. And it’s a shame, because museums and galleries are much less fun when you don’t really know what you’re looking at.

I started this blog to make art history a bit more accessible. I’ll be posting updates explaining a variety of art historical topics. If I get a question about a specific topic, I’ll post about it, so if you want to ask a question, do and I will answer it on the site. Any question, even if you’re embarrassed to ask it (especially if you’re embarrassed to ask it.)