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Art History

Unearthing the secrets of an ancient Greek city
Two ancient mosaics recently unearthed.

Underneath layers of built-up dirt, Mantha Zarmakoupi and colleagues began to uncover the tiled edge of at least two mosaics, spread across separate rooms dating back to the 3rd century BCE. One that stood out depicted two fighting cupids (top), figures of Eros, the Greek god of love, whose imagery is related to Dionysos, the Greek god of wine and the patron deity of Teos, with a major temple in the city.

(Image: Courtesy of Teos Archaeological Project)

Unearthing the secrets of an ancient Greek city

Classical archaeologist and architectural historian Mantha Zarmakoupi has spent the past four summers excavating the ruins of a city council building at the center of Teos in western Türkiye.

Marilyn Perkins

Every book lover dreams of it. Few ever get it.
Slate.com

Every book lover dreams of it. Few ever get it.

Shannon Mattern of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the book ladder represents a scaling up of the analog engagement with a physical book.

The practice of art collection as a collaboration
People looking at the After Modernism exhibit at the Arthur Ross Gallery.

nocred

The practice of art collection as a collaboration

As part of an undergraduate course, Penn faculty and students curated an Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition of works from the Neumann family’s extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.
Decoding Melania Trump’s new official portrait
BBC

Decoding Melania Trump’s new official portrait

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses Melania Trump’s new official portrait and her relationship with the photographer, Régine Mahaux.

Caretaker of 9,000 works of art
Lynn Dolby standing in front of two artworks

Lynn Smith Dolby is the director of the Penn Art Collection, which has nearly 9,000 artworks. 

nocred

Caretaker of 9,000 works of art

As the director of the Penn Art Collection in charge of nearly 9,000 artworks, Lynn Smith Dolby manages the conservation, registration, and display of all University-owned art, indoors and outdoors across campus.
Do these ancient seals unlock clues to the origins of writing?
Artnet News

Do these ancient seals unlock clues to the origins of writing?

Holly Pittman of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Museum helped contribute to a study arguing that ancient Sumerian seals used to brand products shaped the formation of cuneiform, humanity’s earliest known example of writing.

‘What is the Enlightenment? Questions for the 18th Century’
A man looks at a stand-alone wall of carved busts in niches

Image: David von Becker/Deutsches Historisches Museum

‘What is the Enlightenment? Questions for the 18th Century’

In a new exhibition in Berlin, Liliane Weissberg of the School of Arts & Sciences curates hundreds of objects reflecting on the nature of Enlightenment and its continued significance today.

Kristina García

Doug Emhoff is all over the campaign trail. Melania Trump is not
The Washington Post

Doug Emhoff is all over the campaign trail. Melania Trump is not

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences says that whatever candidates’ spouses choose to do during a campaign has the potential to influence voters.

Two Penn faculty awarded Pew Fellowships
Sculptor Michelle Lopez sitting and talking in front of her sculpture and musician Tyshawn Sorey standing in front of a grafitti on a wall

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awarded two Penn faculty each a Pew Fellowship in the Arts: artist and sculptor Michelle Lopez (left) in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design; and musician and composer Tyshawn Sorey (right) in the School of Arts & Sciences.

(Images (left) by University of Pennsylvania Communications, and (right) Ogata courtesy of the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.)

Two Penn faculty awarded Pew Fellowships

Two Penn faculty -- installation artist and sculptor Michelle Lopez, and composer and musician Tyshawn Sorey -- each have been awarded one of 12 arts fellowships by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia.