Karen Yuan's previous work for The Toast can be found here.
In the last decade of his life, Henri Matisse couldn’t paint anymore. He sat post-surgery in a wheelchair in France’s Hôtel Régina, often barefoot and wearing a blue cardigan with no shirt beneath.
During a recent visit to the Frick Collection, my students were expressively irritated by the lack of wall text that could explain the works of art to them. However, when forced to consider William Turner’s Fishing Boats Entering Calais Harbor, they were able to understand the precarious situation of the boat and intuit the frustration of seeing the proximity of the harbor yet being on a boat unlikely to reach it. They noted the
Susan Harlan's previous work for The Toast can be found here. When I was in Paris recently, I wondered what would happen if I just never went home. Most people wonder this in Paris. It is not novel. When I graduated from college, I was all set to move there and start an internship at The International Herald Tribune. I can’t remember how I managed to get this internship. It seems that it should…
Happy Valentine's Day, friends and mild lovers. It's time to show those special someone(s) that you care (assuming you do). These delightfully dismissive Valentines are perfect for letting the people in your life know that, hey, you have plenty of other things to think about, too.
Previously: A Meat Processing Professional Reviews Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
Snowpiercer is presented in a conventional 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the US widescreen cinema standard, and runs for 126 minutes. Although the film has a laudable focus on issues of food security, I sadly cannot recommend it. I appreciate that many hands work on a film such as this, but ultimately I hold the director, Mr. Bong, responsible for the inconsistencies that he
“The White Marmorean Flock” does not, as I initially thought, have anything to do with mammary glands or geese. It is a term, created by Nathaniel Hawthorne and then coined by Henry James, for a group of nineteenth century American expatriate lady sculptors working in the Neoclassical style: Louisa Lander, Harriet Hosmer, Anne Whitney, Emma Stebbins, Edmonia Lewis, Margaret Foley, Florence Freeman, and Vinnie Ream. Wikipedia generously divides them into the category of
LITERALLY ALL OF EUROPE CAN ENTIRELY SUCK IT: For decades, the only evidence of ancient cave art was in Spain and southern France. It led some to believe that the creative explosion that led to the art and science we know today began in Europe. But the discovery of paintings of a similar age in Indonesia shatters this view, according to Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London.
Alexis Coe’s past essays on history for The Toast can be found here. Alexis’ column is brought to you courtesy of a sweet and generous sponsor who wishes to be known as The Ghost of Jane…
im sherlock holmes lets solve crimes but definitely not have feelings oh im learning what friendship is and also solving crime at the same time what a surprising turn of events
i prefer scarves to people, make a GIF of me
i don't have time for social niceties OR the authority of the Pope
I recently received an email alerting me in the subject heading that my husband had sent me a gift. This wasn’t unusual, this is what people do, find silly things on the internet and sprinkle them into each other’s virtual mailboxes, the cheeky e-cards, the funny animal video, the link to a news article. I’m busy, so I assumed it was something of that ilk and reminded myself to open it later.
She walks down the alley. Her hand’s in her bag, fingers gripped around her brush. She finds the wall. Kneels, unrolls her handmade poster. Quick swipe of paste on the paper, another on the wall. The poster goes up, then she uses her bare hands to smooth the surface, fingers pressing the paper into cracks. Car lights splash. She turns her face away. Another quick layer of paste once the car is gone,
While I was studying for my master’s degree in art history, a nearby library exhibited their collection of illuminated manuscripts. They invited a prominent scholar of medieval books to write the catalogue, and in this catalogue, he attributes two of the manuscripts to women, specifically nuns. He praises the first manuscript, a fifteenth-century Rule, or monastic handbook, from the convent of St. Catherine in Nuremberg. He waxes poetic on the convent’s renowned scriptorium and describes…
Jade Sylvan's previous work for The Toast can be found here. In high school, my parents said I went through “phases.” I would cut my hair short, lift weights, and dress super butch one year, then I would grow my hair out, get highlights, go on diets, and wear tight dresses and heels the next. Sometimes in my butcher phases I'd smash down my breasts and deepen my voice and actually try to “pass”…
