When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925, the Valley of Ashes he described as “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens,” was a very real place. This wasteland between Brooklyn and Queens was known as the Corona Dump, where the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company disposed...
From the Object of the Day archives, a Hildreth Meière mural design for the Chicago World's Fair.
Though in western cultures, suntans are appreciated for their indication of good health and a leisurely lifestyle, the Japanese standard remained quite different even up to the mid-1960s. Since ancient times, Asian cultures have idealized lighter complexions because they indicated a person’s privileged status. Those people living richly enough to remain indoors maintained a whiter...
This poster, entitled Big Nudes, was originally displayed in 1967 at the School of Visual Arts Gallery in Gramercy to announce an exhibition of large nude paintings. This poster is the work of American graphic designer and illustrator Milton Glaser. Glaser has designed more than 400 posters, record-covers, illustrations, magazine covers and advertisements throughout his...
Roger Palmer, the first Earl of Castlemaine, was an English writer, diplomat and courtier who sat in the House of Commons. Palmer was a devout Roman Catholic and a staunch supporter of the Stuart Monarchy. Palmer’s loyalty was so committed that he even acquiesced to the appointment of his wife, Barbara Villiers as Charles II’s...
At the time of Alphonse Mucha’s birth in present day Czech Republic, the struggle for independence from the Hapsburg Empire was reaching a boiling point. The people in this region had a strong nationalist consciousness and were fighting for greater political and cultural freedom. The heavily political atmosphere in which Mucha grew up continued to...
The Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco was “ground zero” for the counterculture revolution of the 1960s. The so-called psychedelic subculture that emerged in the Haight explored new possibilities in art and living that stemmed from a desire to remake American culture. The artistic endeavors of this community, be it poetry, theater, dance or music, were expressed...
Tadanori Yokoo’s designs are the result of an effortless combination of eclectic visual motifs from across time and borders. In this poster for Kanox, a Japanese production company involved with television, film radio, stage and commercial advertising, Yokoo juxtaposes classical architecture from an Italian Renaissance villa with a surrealist galaxy filled with brightly colored celestial...
Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s renown for still-lifes and hunting scenes can be traced back to an enthusiastic review at the annual Exposition de la Jeunesse that was held on the feast of Corpus Christi in the Palace Dauphine, Paris in the early 1720s. His depictions of the spoils of the hunt were impressive not only for their...
