Category: Top Left Story
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The Hip-Hop History of Pharrell Williams’ Buffalo Hat
At the 2014 Grammy Awards, the French electronic duo Daft Punk–donning their trademark spacesuits with helmets obscuring their faces–performed their hit collaboration “Get Lucky” with hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams and funk guitarist Nile Rogers alongside the legendary Stevie Wonder. The medley of hits, including Chic’s “Le Freak” and Wonders’ “Another Star”, bridged decades and genres—funk, […]
Colleen Kennedy | 06.01.2023 -
A Long View of History
Paintings on view in the African and American art galleries both reflect and transcend the moments in time in which they were made Recent visitors to the African art galleries on the BMA’s first floor have been drawn to the vibrant reds and rich crimsons that dominate Ficre Ghebreyesus’ Red Room. The painting is situated […]
Staff | 11.01.2022 -
From Baltimore, Maryland, to Amman, Jordan, Skateboarding Makes the World Go Round
To the BMA’s Dave Eassa, few sounds are as familiar as skateboard wheels hitting the pavement and gliding over concrete. This, in concert with excited shouting and hollering, was the soundtrack to the five weeks he spent in Amman, Jordan this year. For the month of July and into August, he taught skateboarding and sculpture […]
Dave Eassa | 11.03.2021 -
A Timeline of The Freedom Quilting Bee
At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the quilters of a small, rural town in Alabama founded the Freedom Quilting Bee. The woman-led cooperative used their craft skills to establish new forms of income and expand their quilting audience. Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is home to generations of extraordinary Black craftswomen, who represent a crucial […]
Stella Hendricks | 03.08.2021 -
Gold Barbra by Deborah Kass
“You paint the whole background, you screen it lightly once. You paint in what needs to be painted in, and then you screen it again. Just like Andy did it.” 1 In 1992, Deborah Kass ran a glossy film still through the only large Xerox machine in New York’s East Village. She had found the […]
Cecilia Wichmann | 08.19.2020 -
What We’re Missing Most: BMA Lexington Market
“Already, I miss it so much,” SHAN Wallace says of Lexington Market, a city block of carry-outs, kiosks, and poultry and produce stands that closed on March 19 in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus. As the city rolls out new plans to develop both the Market and the surrounding area —demolition began […]
Jessica Novak | 05.12.2020 -
Spray Paint, Surprise, and Wonder
Looking at the work of Katharina Grosse What?! She made that with paint? That’s a lot of paint! She did that on a house?! These are the reactions I received when I showed my young daughters a photograph of Katharina Grosse’s Rockaway, the artist’s 2016 commission for MoMA PS1—a transformation of the derelict Fort Tilden […]
Virginia Anderson | 04.10.2020 -
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE ARTIST: SHAN WALLACE ON 410
Baltimore native SHAN Wallace uses her camera to tell personal, often political, and indelibly poetic stories about her hometown. Her site-specific installation, 410, is on view at The Baltimore Museum of Art beginning March 1 through June 28. Named for the area code that encompasses the city, 410 is conceived as a love letter to […]
Staff | 02.28.2020 -
How Conservators Restored a 1937 Painting & the Artist’s Place in History
When Virginia Anderson, Curator of American Art, came across Maria Hamel Finkelstein’s 1937 painting Meditation in storage, it was clear the painting had been untouched for quite some time. Dirt covered the surface of the painting, concealing its true colors and nuances. A thick, uneven coating of yellowing varnish created scattered splotches. There were fraying […]
Staff | 12.20.2019 -
In the Galleries: Children’s Takes on Contemporary Art
Artist, writer, and BMA Security Officer Dereck Stafford Mangus shares his encounter with students and Glenn Ligon’s Untitled (America America) A few weeks back, a magical if fleeting moment occurred in the Museum. A few children from a school group exiting the Contemporary Wing slowed down while passing Glenn Ligon’s Untitled (America America). This conceptual […]
Dereck Mangus | 11.19.2019
