Here’s the best Christmas present a museum nerd could ever ask for.  NPR is releasing a series of programs on today’s museums.  Each one presents an in-depth but easy-to-understand summary of the challenges facing museums in the U.S.–everything from art crime to experimental architecture to education. Thoroughly researched, with quotes from all the great players in the field, each is a fascinating gem.

Listen at NPR’s ‘Museums in the 21st Century’ series webpage.
Via Museum Blogging.

Wow. Well, recreating tableaus of great art out of celebrities isn’t new — see Scarlett Johanssen in Girl with a Pearl Earring or even Brangelina unintentionally posing as a van Eyck painting — but People Magazine’s special “Sexy Forever” issue recreated “iconic female images,” two of which are paintings.  They say they’re trying to make these icons “hipper” and “hotter” but, well, they just kind of manage to mess up the great works of art.  They tackle American Gothic (the mousy young woman becomes a jewelry-laden sex kitten… huh?) but most striking is the one below, of Ann-Margaret as Whistler’s Mother.  Maybe it’s just my art-history-nerd self speaking, but they’ve managed to ruin everything important about Whistler’s painting–the harmony of shapes and colors created by her figure and the background are instead taken up by Ann-Margaret, posing away in a huge gown of unfurling circular shapes.  Say it with me, art historians: What?!

The witty, clever, and all-around awesome art and literary musings of those at independent publisher Abbeville Press had some very nice things to say about this blog.  We’re big fans, so their post made our day.  Thanks, Abbeville Manual of Style!

My fellow blog author and I are retreating to the books, since our undergraduate theses are due in a mere 10 days (!). No new posts till then, but once our looming deadline passes, expect another Art in Real Life post, a review of the Met’s Phillippe de Montebello Years exhibition, and more.  Off to the library we go…

Revised with commentary There’s nothing like seeing a work of art in person.  After all, do projected Powerpoints or captioned dimensions really mean anything? After spending a semester abroad last spring, and standing in front of famous artwork for the first time, I reaffirmed just how important seeing the true size of art in relation to a person is — it almost always adds a whole new dimension to the work. This little series called Art in Real Life aims to add a little of that feeling to internet-art-viewing by presenting photos of art history’s master works in real life.

The first installment of “Art in Real Life” is in Paris, home to countless masterworks of art. I was lucky enough to go to Paris when I was abroad, and annoyed many of my friends by insisting they stand in front of artwork so I could get shots of how large the piece actually was.  Have you, too, wondered just how big David’s Oath of the Horatii is or whether you’re taller than the Mona Lisa?  Read on for highlights at the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay.

(Read On…)

Ever wanted to practice your child’s pose or downward dog surrounded by incredible works of art?  Turns out you can — at UNC Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum, where weekly yoga programs are offered in the Asian galleries. Although I was a little shocked at first at the idea of any sport-related anything being done in a museum, on second thought, yoga seems like the perfect activity in a calm, quiet, well-lit atmosphere surrounded by beautiful objects. Now, to convince my college museum to move yoga from the gym to the galleries…

Yoga in the Galleries, at the Ackland Art Museum