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Fresh perspectives on art, life, and current events. From deep dives to quick takes to insightful interviews, it’s the museum in conversation. Beyond the walls. Outside the frame. Around the world.
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The Hairy Family and the Habsburgs
By Tim Gihring
Of all the memorable images on view at the MIA in “The Habsburgs: Rarely Seen Masterpieces from Europe’s Greatest Dynasty,” the one that may haunt you—may send you scurrying to Google to assuage your curiosity—is a small portrait of a girl named Antonietta Gonzales. She is about 8 or 9 years old, ...
ISIS has declared war on cultural heritage. Is there anything we can do?
In the past few weeks, the media has been flooded with reports of the Islamic State, or ISIS/ISIL, destroying Iraq’s ancient heritage. They’ve smashed Mesopotamian treasures at the Mosul Museum, burned thousands of rare books and manuscripts in the Mosul Library, and bulldozed entire preserved Assyrian cities, including UNESCO World Heritage sites at Nimrud and ...
Once at MIA: Artful underwear
She might have stepped out of a painting, a goddess in satin unmentionables. Which is presumably what Munsingwear was going for with this August 1944 photo shoot in the MIA fountain court. Classy. Elegant. Underwear so beautiful it could be in a museum. Munsingwear, founded in Minneapolis in the 1880s, wasn’t known for sex appeal. ...
Once at MIA: An encounter of crowns
Only one of these three is lacking a crown, if not credentials. He’s Dr. Oswald Goetz, a medieval expert from the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1949, he accompanied his museum’s carving of St. Margaret of Alexandria to the MIA for an unprecedented show of sculpture from around the world. The MIA had hoped to duplicate ...
Art Inspires: Jim Lenfestey on the mysterious poetry of Cold Mountain, a voice in ink on silk
During my four-decade love affair with the voice of poet Han-shan, or Cold Mountain, I have seen many paintings of him. He was unkown in his lifetime—possibly even a legend. But his image became very popular in China. And of all the paintings I have seen, I love this portrait at the MIA the best. Not ...
Once at MIA: Artists at work
They seem caught in the act—of something. Painting a nude? Abstraction (gasp)? The woman with the large eyes holds the camera’s gaze as if daring the photographer—and us—to see what the brush is putting down. But they were almost certainly posed, standing as still for the camera as whatever was being painted. They were art ...
Once at MIA: Babes in arms
Was this part of an ill-conceived Touch Anything You Want Day? A routine hazing of museum interns? We have no idea. What we do know is that it’s 1941, the children are in the museum’s former Medieval Gallery with the Explorers Club museum youth group, and those pikes look awfully sharp. But let’s assume the ...
Absolutely Fabulous: Highlights of the MIA's Collection
View ‘the best of the best’ of the celebrated works in the MIA’s world-renowned collections. From an Egyptian mummy to master paintings and sculptures, you won’t want to miss out on these ‘must-see’ pieces. ...
Once at MIA: The art of partying
We don’t know what these arty partiers, these ’80s-era swells, were imbibing at the MIA—or why. These days, there needn’t be an occasion: the MIA sells beer and wine in its restaurants; happy hour begins at 2:30 p.m. But for a long time there wasn’t any alcohol at the MIA, and there wasn’t supposed to ...
Once at MIA: Teens Across Time
Be still my heart. Isn’t he just a dreamboat? The S.S. Studly Do-Right! Why, he could just come over with that dog of his for colas anytime! Well, who knows what the girls were really smiling about. This was 1933, after all, and the boy has longer hair than they do, kind of a British ...