Dazzled by Art

See iconic Edgar Allan Poe poems and short stories, featuring gothic tales, dark themes, and hauntingly beautiful language from the master of macabre. Portrait of American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Undated illustration, after a photo by Matthew Brady. Bettmann Archive Boston-born, Richmond-raised Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers of all time and his name is one that inspires images of dark, atmospheric plots, haunting characters and soul-gripping storytelling. One of the reasons why Poe is called the master of the macabre is because he took the horror genre and found a niche within it. Even so many generations later, Poe’s creative DNA remains of the driving forces of the horror and mystery genres, and his works remain as unsettling and dreadful today as they were in the 19th century. Poe’s writing career began in the early 1820s with the release of “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” a collection of poems that included the well-thought-ou...

Aug 22 (IPS) - CIVICUS speaks with Chris Garrard, co-founder and co-director of Culture Unstained, about the campaign to end fossil fuel sponsorship of cultural institutions, which oil companies use to try to present a positive public image. Read the full story, “UK: ‘Many in the Climate Justice Movement Are Finding Creative and Imaginative Ways to Protest’”, on globalissues.org → by CIVICUS Thursday, August 22, 2024 Inter Press Service The campaign has achieved some notable successes, with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Tate group of art galleries ending BP sponsorship deals and the Edinburgh Science Festival rejecting fossil fuel funding. Recently, the Science Museum in London ended its sponsorship arrangement with the Norwegian state-owned oil giant Equinor. It's now under pressure to reconsider its relationships with Adani and BP. How significant is the London Science Museum's decision to end its sponsorship by Equinor? The museum...

Conventional art history proclaims Abstract Expressionism as the first originally “American” artform. With all due respect to Jackson Pollock, another novel artform was simultaneously developing in post-War America. Installation Image: ‘Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard,’ 2024 Constance Mensh Conventional art history proclaims Abstract Expressionism as the first originally “American” artform. With all due respect to Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and the de Koonings, another novel artform was simultaneously developing in post-War America. It came from Wisconsin and Mississippi and Texas, outside “The City” whose critics, curators and collectors decreed what had worth and what did not. Emerging from the hinterland, this creative expression did not pass their muster. Neither did its practitioners. These artists didn’t attend the Arts Students League. They often didn’t attend any art college, or any college, or sometimes any high school for that matter. Yard art. Th...