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Avant-Guardian Musings

  • Spring 2025
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“Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space”
— Marcel Duchamp

Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture and screen studies. For students currently enrolled in my courses or the field school, the blog and associated social media links also serve as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas and visual material raised in lecture and seminar discussion.

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Blog
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
about 10 months ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
about 2 years ago

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Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved
Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved rediscovering and wearing them today. Great design is timeless. Invest in things you love— your future self will thank you✨ . . . #tomford #sunglasses #tomfordwhitney #whatiwore #shamelessselfie
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural.
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#artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural. . . . #artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hess
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hesse, Flavin, Rothko, Andre, Lewitt, Stella, etc…) are curated both in dialogue with Korean modern artists such as Lee Ufan and Kim Chong-yung, but also in juxtaposition to the beautiful natural setting that is showcased through large windows throughout the complex. A must see gallery if you visit Seoul. . . . #seoul #korea #modernart #contemporaryart #koreanart #arthistory
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner.
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#seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner. . . . #seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I ca
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I cannot wait to begin exploring, especially the contemporary art and design scene. I am here to attend and give a paper at the #IPSA2025 International Political Science Association World Congress, the largest global gathering of researchers and academics working on all things political and international relations oriented. IPSA as an academic association was founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949 and is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world and promotes collaboration between scholars in both established and emerging democracies. The 2025 Conference theme is “Resisting Autocratization in Polarized Societies” and I was invited to present a paper on my ongoing work on Trumpism, the neo avante-garde, and visual culture on a panel examining the role of cultural actors during periods of democratic backsliding. I only had a few hours after I arrived to my hotel to check out COEX, but I had to see the world famous library housed inside the shopping complex. It was a very cool sight for a book nerd like me 🤓 . . . #seoul #korea #southkorea #politicalscience #arthistory #academiclife #conference @kpuarts @kwantlenu

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© Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com, 2010-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

With every new tab, a new work of art. Google Art Project's Chrome Extension allows you a chance to discover (or rediscover) artworks from around the world, including street and public art. Shown here is art collective Bicicleta Sem Freio and t…

With every new tab, a new work of art. Google Art Project's Chrome Extension allows you a chance to discover (or rediscover) artworks from around the world, including street and public art. Shown here is art collective Bicicleta Sem Freio and their Los Angeles street mural painted in 2014. More info on this project can also be found here.

Mini Musing: Google Art Extension for Chrome, A New Artwork Each Day

August 18, 2015

I love a tidy desktop, especially on a large home computer screen. At home, I often utilize my large computer monitor as another "blank space" to place and enjoy art images, uploading and changing my desktop wallpaper with different artworks as the seasons and my mood/interests change. Late this spring, I was happy to run across a Google extension for the Chrome browser that refreshes new tabs with artworks chosen at random from art museums/galleries/collections from all around the world. 

If you don't use Chrome, this extension won't work for you, but if you needed an excuse to finally switch browsers, this might be it. 

If you don't use Chrome, this extension won't work for you, but if you needed an excuse to finally switch browsers, this might be it. 

The Google Art Extension is part of the larger Google Cultural Institute project that has been working to help digitize and make available exhibits and collections from museums and archives around the world. One of the main arms of this larger initiative is the Google Art Project which allows users to browse and virtually visit many art galleries and museums from around the world. With the click of a button, the extension is simply added to Chrome and works immediately to present a new randomly chosen artwork with each new opened tab. At the bottom of your screen, there is a link with information that takes you over to the Google Cultural Institute to learn more about the art and artist. A great additional feature is that each image is categorized and tagged with several other topics, so that you can explore the form, content, or context of an art object and see how it is connected to a larger world of art. Oh, and if you don't care for the art you were presented on any given day, or want to explore more works, you can simply hit the refresh button next to the link at the bottom of the page and voila, new artworks appear!

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Some years ago, I blogged about Google Art Project when it first launched and talked about its status as a cabinet of curiosities, speculating on what was at stake with how it was presented and what would come of the site. Last year I finally began to work more directly with Google Art Project in my survey art history courses as a way to introduce students to particular art objects up close and in a far more detailed way than a traditional art slide could provide. I also encouraged students to virtually tour museums on the site and look at works of lesser known art or work by lesser known artists that were still meaningfully connected to the canonical artworks we studied in class. Over time, I have come to utilize Google Art Project as a great resource for student research (you can create your own galleries to compare and contrast high-quality images) and as a means through which to interrogate and question the way art exhibitions are curated and planned. That is not to say I have completely been seduced by the initiative, but I am glad to see the inclusion of non-Western art and a healthy selection of street and urban art projects as among the images popping up on my screen. The only downside is that you may find yourself carried down the rabbit hole once you begin to explore the many dimensions of these artworks!

← Mini Musing: I Got Adult Colouring Books For My BirthdayTop 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting in Fall/Winter 2015 →
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© Dorothy Barenscott, 2010-2025