Category: Artworks

“A Christmas Greeting to You” is written in flowing script above a delightfully odd little standoff: a wide-eyed tabby cat crouches low while a bedraggled black bird leans in, beak open as if delivering a complaint. The scene is simple yet theatrical, with the cat’s arched tail and the bird’s clawed gesture turning a holiday…

A single figure seems to split into two in “Double Heads, 1933,” a sly drawing where one body carries a pair of sharply modeled faces, each with its own knowing expression. The character’s suit, tie, and polished shoes suggest an everyday modern type, yet the exaggerated ears, long noses, and theatrical smiles push the scene…

Drawn for instruction rather than sentiment, this 1829 obstetric plate lays out the final, easily overlooked work of childbirth: the careful removal of the placenta and management of the umbilical cord. Two labeled figures focus tightly on the mother’s lower body, with draped cloths creating a clinical frame around the anatomy. Fine shading and restrained…

Plate XIX turns surgical instruction into a carefully staged narrative, using fine linework and labeled figures to guide the viewer through the removal of a bladder stone. The composition focuses on hands, instruments, and anatomy rather than faces, keeping attention on technique and the precise orientation of tissues. Seen as an artwork as much as…

Playful affection radiates from Patti Warashina’s Valentine to Robert Sperry (1996), a hand-crafted collage that turns a simple greeting into a miniature artwork. Against a clean white ground and a thin red border, cut-out faces and bodies are arranged with the exuberance of a scrapbook—part portrait, part visual joke, and entirely intimate. The red heart…

Handwritten energy fills the page in “Howard Finster to Barbara Shissler Nosanow, 1981,” where a dense letter becomes an artwork in its own right. Lines of text crowd the background, giving the impression of a hurried, excited message, while the pencil marks retain the immediacy of a note meant to be read—not merely admired. That…

Bold red lettering announces **“Pèl & Ploma”**, and the small print across the top places this issue in **Barcelona, 2 de Desembre de 1899**, priced at **10 cents**. The cover pairs elegant typography with a softly rendered figure study: a seated woman in a sweeping crimson dress, her silhouette framed by a dark fur wrap…

Bold, banner-like lettering—“Fight Communism with—”—tops a poster-style page that reads like a civic sermon for the early Cold War. Beneath it, the “Ten Commandments of Citizenship” are laid out in crisp, numbered lines, turning patriotism into a checklist: know your government, stay informed on foreign problems, vote, and scrutinize newspapers and magazines “critically.” A faint…

Printed in bold, flat colors and sharp ink lines, this panel from *Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism!* leans into the urgency of early Cold War propaganda. The caption announces “Communist leaders met in New York,” while a tight, indoor setting and formal suits suggest clandestine planning behind respectable façades—an anxiety the era’s political art…

A swirl of white satin dominates the composition, spreading outward like a stage spotlight around a poised figure in evening dress. The model’s towering, cloudlike headpiece and long strand of pearls read as pure 1920s fantasy—part couture, part performance—while the painterly brushwork gives the scene a lively, magazine-illustration elegance. Deep purples and warm browns in…