Valentine's Day Gifts to Ensure You're Single on Feb. 15

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Advertisements don't need any words to say a lot about a culture.

That's one of the messages that shines through in the work of artist Hank Willis Thomas.
In the run-up to the 2016 election — and the possibility of a white woman being nominated — he's mounted a new exhibit, featuring women in print. It's called Unbranded: A Century of White Women, and it features images from mainstream commercial print advertisements from 1915 to today.

 

If The World's Major Cities Were Made Of Food

In a charming photo series called BrunchCity, photographer Andrea G. Portoles and illustrator Bea Crespo reimagine the world's cities as mini metropolises where midday noshes are part of the architecture.

 

The Evolving Face of Santa

A look into Smithsonian's vast archives reveals that Father Christmas tends to get a makeover with every generation that embraces him.

Santa Claus wasn’t always the jovial white-bearded bearer of gifts that we know so well today. In fact, Santa's historical roots in America trace to the 18th-century arrival of Dutch immigrants, who would gather on December 6 to honor the anniversary of Saint Nicholas’ death.  continue

 

Models in Wild Makeup by Rankin

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America’s Lawrence of Arabia, Wendell Phillips

People have tried to make relatable comparisons to Phillips; some have gone with Lawrence of Arabia, others a real-life Indiana Jones. At age 26, armed with a degree in paleontology and experience in the Merchant Marines, he began his adventures in Africa. Then in 1949, at 28, he went to South Arabia. There, he uncovered artifacts from the city of Timna, once located along ancient trade routes. No western archaeologist had ever been there before. Those Timna findings and the details of Phillips' legendary life are the focus of an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, “Unearthing Arabia: The Archaeological Adventures of Wendell Phillips”.

 

Richard Estes' Incredibly Realistic Paintings

Times Square is a good place to go unnoticed. A decade ago, Richard Estes stood there, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Sesame Street characters and tour bus promoters, and snapped a series of photos. With so many people doing the same thing, it’s unlikely anyone gave much thought to the septuagenarian shutterbug. But for half a century, the art world has lauded Estes for his photorealist paintings, which he creates from photographs. The work that resulted from his Times Square pictures that day and 45 other paintings are now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.The exhibition, “Richard Estes’ Realism,” debuted last week and is open through February 2015. Curators say it’s the world’s most comprehensive Estes exhibition ever.

 

GM Made This Bizarre 20-Foot-Tall Vehicle to Predict the Future

In 1940, General Motors wanted to wow the American public with its vision of the future.
To showcase those ideas, it designed one of the strangest automobiles you’ll ever see. The GM Futurliner resembles an RV. It weighs 30,000 pounds, has a top speed of 38 mph, and is as tall as a two-story house. Now, one of the nine Futurliners still in existence is going up for auction, and it’s expected to fetch a hefty sum. continue

 

no brand is your friend

Inspired by the the work of Alex Noriega (http://www.snotm.com/) and Banksy’s take on advertising (http://banksy.co.uk/) some random thoughts about brands and facebook. Images are from all over the Internet. - See more at the curious brain

 

Up, up and away.

The 87th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City is lifting balloons and spirits on Thursday.
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Losing President Kennedy

This Friday, November 22nd, is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Here, the Magnum photographers Elliott Erwitt, Cornell Capa, and René Burri capture his brief Presidency, and the days of sorrow and confusion that followed his death.

 

Bill Henson and the Dark Matter of Portraiture

Photographer Bill Henson has always been obsessed with the physical process of making art. Growing up in suburban Melbourne, Australia, Henson began his career as a painter inspired by etchings of Rembrandt. His first solo exhibition of photography, when he was 19, was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1975. more

 

Favorite New Yorker Cartoons

Here’s a slideshow of readers’ favorite cartoons. 

 

Small Cars,Huge Personalities

Microcars have held the limelight of late. The world’s largest privately held collection went under the hammer in the Southeastern US state of Georgia in February, bringing more than $8 million in total sales. The heyday of these cars was surely in the mid- to late 1950s, when post-war Europe turned to creating mobility solutions for the masses. The original Mini and Fiat 500 may be the most recognisable machines from this era, but these four-seaters were downright behemoths compared to the two-seat, low-displacement conveyances surveyed here. Powered by everything from tiny two-stroke engines to advanced electric motors, these microcars are the banner-flyers for the breed.

 

The Surreal World of Nina Leen

Nobody knows how old the Russian-born photographer Nina Leen was when she died, in 1995. Judging from her obituary, information about Leen is scarce. She lived in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland before moving to the U.S., where she became one of Life magazine’s first female photographers, in the nineteen-forties. She shot countless assignments for the magazine, including more than fifty cover stories, and produced fifteen photo books. Her most well-known subjects were animals (including her dog Lucky), American women and adolescents, and the Irascibles, a group of abstract artists, including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Though many of Leen’s assignments were quite pedestrian—her photos have titles like “A Couple Looking for a House to Buy,” “Children Attending a Birthday Party,” and “American Women Playing Bridge”—her images are packed with as much violence, sexual tension, and mystery as any David Lynch film.
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Can you solve the cryptic puzzles released to mark Lego's 55th birthday?

To celebrate their 55th birthday, Lego have released a series of cryptic puzzles. Each riddle uses Lego block to represent a film title, children's story, song title or band name. See how many you can get. Answers are on the final slide.

 

The Smartest Animals On Earth

In terms of human accomplishments, sending a monkey into space is nothing new. The United States first tried to send a monkey into space in 1948, but, sadly, Albert died during the flight. Albert’s successor, Albert II, also died, as did Alberts III through VII. Thankfully, there were no more Alberts, and, in 1958, Gordo the squirrel monkey was sent into the great unknown, onboard a U.S. Army rocket. Gordo, however, also died. Finally, in 1952, female monkeys were admitted to the space program, and later that decade Able and Miss Baker became the first monkeys to successfully travel to space and back.

More importantly, animals have been doing incredible things for quite some time now, as evidenced by this slide show of historic photos of animals being amazing.

 

Vanishing Into Nature

Instead of trying to compete with the beauty of the natural landscape, Mr. Oppenheim created a house that recedes into it, with 300-year-old recycled barn wood and locally quarried stone cladding and enormous picture windows.
  Vanishing Into Nature - Slide Show - NYTimes.com

Which Species Will Live, Which Will Die?

 Conservation groups can no longer afford to try to protect all animals and plants, forcing heartbreaking choices.
By Mark Fischetti
 Scientific American Slideshows

How does an image become an icon?

"Jesus Christ was originally depicted without a beard. The heart symbol didn’t get its two round lobes until the 1400s, and the Coca-Cola bottle hasn’t changed in almost a century.
These are just a few of the interesting facts that Oxford University professor Martin Kemp encountered in the process of researching his latest project, Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon. The book, which will be released Nov. 10, examines the stories behind the most famous pictures in the world."
Images from Martin Kemp’s book Christ to Coke: How does an image become an icon? - Slate Magazine