View From a Pandemic: An Artist in China
TEXT AND IMAGES BY ERQING XU
Erqing Xu, a graphic designer in Shanghai, invites us into her pandemic experiences and some of the art they led her to create.
Two Paintings and an Encounter
STORY BY JANE POTTHAST
This week’s writer illustrates the power of art for guiding us to new places. For her, two paintings in a Vatican gallery thrust her into a spiritually profound encounter.
These, the “Pope’s paintings,” cried out to God more than any others as we wound through masterpieces in the sad, vast Vatican.
We were plodding through the quarters and it was less crowded than the other museums, as it was not on the path to the Sistine Chapel.
I started to tremble when we saw a Raphael, his last before death. A secrecy pervaded the image, forcing me to a craggy edge of longing at which my eyes watered.
Imaginibus: Illumination in the Detroit Institute of Arts
By Marina Gross-Hoy
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a gem. It has one of the largest art collections in the United States, with objects spanning from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary America.
The reason for my visit on a blustery March afternoon was to test Lumin, the museum’s brand new augmented reality mobile experience.
Imaginibus: Retreating in the Met
I felt overwhelmed by how much there was to see, and I didn’t know how to structure my visit. I wanted to see everything, and simultaneously, I longed to take my time with the artworks. Then, as I was meandering through the Greek and Roman statuary, all of a sudden I came to a halt…
Imaginibus: Fostering Imagination in Museums
“A museum is doing its job when this relationship between object and visitor is reciprocal: The visitor attentively observes the object and perhaps learns information about it, and she then applies her own experiences and “cultural baggage” to give the object meaning…”