There is no why

thetypologist:

Typology of silhouettes, 1844. By E. B. & E. C. Kellogg Lithography Company. Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery collection.

archivesofamericanart:

Anatomy of a horse, according to Ray Johnson.

Ray Johnson mail art to David Bourdon, not before 1962. David Bourdon papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

iheartmyart:

“Wooden Slats Dress” by Yohji Yamamoto, Autumn/Winter 1991

(via acamouflage)

beyoncearthistory:

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair” / Beyonce, “If I Were A Boy”

Credit: Ashley Chen

(Source: hellsoap, via iheartmyart)

cavetocanvas:

George Catlin, Medicine Man, Performing His Mysteries over a Dying Man, 1832

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum:

In 1832, George Catlin witnessed a dramatic ritual at Fort Union, two thousand miles northwest of St. Louis. According to the artist, the medicine man began the healing by administering roots and herbs. If this failed, he would try “shaking his frightful rattles, and singing songs of incantation.” Catlin wrote that the medicine man’s clothing often consisted of “the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—-beaks and tows and tails of birds,—-hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes,” each possessing “anomalies or deformities,” which gave them their healing power. This healer wore the skin of a yellow bear attached with the hides of snakes. Catlin actually owned the costume, and he sometimes wore it to enhance the spectacle of his Indian Gallery.

cavetocanvas:

Glenn Ligon, Untitled (negro sunshine), 2005

I SAW ONE OF THESE IN REAL LIFE IN A MUSEUM’S STORAGE AREA IT WAS AWESOME

masterpiecedaily:

Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Helene Klimt

1898