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Michael Lobel

@mlobelart.bsky.social

28K followers 93 following 4.1K posts

Professor of Art History, Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center. I look at things and then write about them. Author of Van Gogh and the End of Nature, from Yale University Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274363/van-g

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · Jun 25

I'm excited to share that today is the official publication date for my new book, Van Gogh and the End of Nature, from Yale University Press, which more firmly grounds Van Gogh within the industrial era in which he lived & worked (thread)

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 2h

cc: @greg.org

Reposted by Michael Lobel

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 6h

The equally adorable dog (so fluffy!) in Van Eyck's equally iconic Arnolfini Portrait

Painting of man and woman holding hands; dog in foreground; round mirror in back

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 3h

If you need a little bit of a pick-me-up today then I'd recommend checking out @mjmimages.bsky.social's post below, watching the video clip (& particularly Dewayne), and then reading the comments- all splendid & delightful

Michael Jay McClure @mjmimages.bsky.social · 4h

This is two sentences joined by a semicolon.

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 4h

Rachel just in case it helps restore your faith in humanity I would never submit a question to you generated by chatgpt🤗

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 4h

lolol- I know, but there are already too many others on the list..!

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 4h

yes!

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 6h

And an infant portrait of the future King Charles II, which helps explain why the breed are known as King Charles Spaniels..!

Detail of painting, spaniel on infant's lap

Infant in sumptuous clothing, with dog on his lap

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 6h

The equally adorable dog (so fluffy!) in Van Eyck's equally iconic Arnolfini Portrait

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 6h

At London's National Gallery, honestly did not remember how adorable the little spaniel is in Seurat's grand "Bathers at Asnieres" (which is seen as a prelude to his iconic "Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"). A book on dogs at the National Gallery (which I should write!) would also include...

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Reposted by Michael Lobel

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 8h

Julien Adolphe Duvocelle, Skull with Bulging Eyes and Hands Gripping a Wall, c. 1904, pencil and charcoal, 36 x 25 cm (Paris, Musée du Louvre)

A charcoal drawing of a skull with bulging eyes with a scythe gripping a wall (?) in a black frame decorated with bones

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 9h

And a massive batik panel by Susanne Wenger

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 9h

Yusuf Grillo, "Fantasy and Masks," c. 1960

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 9h

Akinola Lasekan, "Yoruba Acrobatic Dance," 1963

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 9h

Engrossing show of Nigerian modernism at Tate Modern, including (thread):

Art gallery with sculptures and paintings

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Reposted by Michael Lobel

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 1d

It’s funny how black people are expected to reach across the aisle to voters like these, while no one ever expects them to reach across the aisle to black people. Amazing who gets to be human, and who doesn’t.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 1d

This adorably lazy dog, painted by an unnamed 17th-century Genoese artist, seen today at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum

An adorable dog laying on its side, looking super chill, with its tongue hanging out

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Reposted by Michael Lobel

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Witches' Flight, 1798, Oil on canvas, 43.5 cm x 30.5 cm (Museo del Prado)

"Three bare-chested characters wearing dunce caps hold a fourth, nude character in the air while another lies on the floor, covering his ears, A sixth figure flees, his head covered with a white cloth. With his hand, he makes the gesture intended to protect him from the evil eye. At the right of the scene, a donkey stands out against the neutral background. This was one of six canvases Goya sold to the Duke and Duchess of Osuna in 1798, as decoration for their country house in La Alameda. They are linked to the etchings from his Caprichos series, in which he presented scenes of witches and witchcraft similar to this one. This painting was acquired by the Prado Museum in 1999 with funds from the Villaescusa legacy." -Museo del Prado https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/witches-flight/5e44d19d-7cda-472b-b6d8-8868c599d252?searchid=4d991d95-a21f-8ffa-9b5c-64591eee7afd

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 2d

It's a small show- just two rooms (with an additional gallery of prints on a separate floor). But good to see Thiebaud in London, as my sense is he's not particularly well known in the UK

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 2d

My advisor from graduate school, Jonathan Weinberg, has painted some gorgeous dahlia pictures; I think this is one of my favorites. Here's his website, just in case you're interested: jonathanweinberg.com/flowers.html