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Sarah Jaffray

@sarahj.bsky.social
214 followers 163 following 88 posts

Art historian C19/20 | drawing, paper & prints | philosophy & process | cinema | choses français | London via L.A.

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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I often think about how cool Emmy Hennings was. (Founder of Dadaism)
Sepia tone photo of a white woman with short, dark hair. She poses in profile, her shoulder peaks from the neck of her dark dress.
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Colleen T @librarycolleen.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The Atlas of Early Printing has a new URL at the Folger. 📜 #BookHistory atlas.folger.edu
atlas.folger.edu
Atlas of Early Printing
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Looks very interesting.
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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 19/02/2026
What does it mean to love in a time of turmoil? Looking to the Middle Ages for answers to life’s puzzles can seem quaint or artificial, and yet medieval culture offers a way of thinking about love that still speaks to the present.
hyperallergic.com
All About Love From a Black Medieval Angel
A rare manuscript illustration casts Blackness not as a mirror of sin, but the ground from which love itself might take shape.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work: 'Your dislike of an artwork does not negate the fact that it is art.'
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Elizabeth @afroartnerd.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Getting my Phillis Wheatley stamps yesterday made me want to focus on her today. Her frontispiece in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) was drawn by Scipio Moorhead, a Black artist who was trained by his enslaver. #BHM
Frontispiece of Phillis Wheatley by Scipio MoorheadPhillis Wheatley stamp by Kerry James MarshallBook cover: The Art of Remembering by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
On behalf of historians, please don't wait.
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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies @sims-mss.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
HYBRID LECTURE! "The Fabrication of Borders: Tailoring and Cartography in Early Modern Europe," Emanuele Lugli, Stanford U. & the 2025-2026 SIMS + Center for Italian Studies Fellow in Italian MSS Studies #medievalsky February 12 @ 5:15pm EST More details and RSVP here: bit.ly/4qkdSoN
bit.ly
The Fabrication of Borders: Tailoring and Cartography in Early Modern Europe
Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies and the Center for Italian Studies Fellow's Lecture in Italian Manuscript Studies
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Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 15/01/2026
Posts from Minneapolis residents read like they'll be read in voiceover in a Ken Burns-like doc one day
r/Minneapolis

If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, that's it for me.
I've spent the last week checking on my neighbors, engaging with my city, my local police, everyone. I've supported my friends and family, made sure they knew they weren't alone in their feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness. I've called and emailed my representatives, demanding answers, demanding action. I've just been overcome with this overwhelming, almost primal need to care for and support my community.

If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, and soldiers take to our streets, then that tears it for me. My son just turned 1yr. I've done my best to be a helper, so that I can still be around to support him and spend time with him.

But if I have to STAND OUTSIDE in the FREEZING COLD and get the SHIT KICKED OUT OF ME by the people who are supposed to be protecting me, if I have to do that to fight for goodness, and righteousness, and justice, then that's what I'm gonna fucking do. I'm going to do it because this is not the future I want for my son.

If you've been out on the streets, and you're tired, and you're hurting, don't worry. Rest when you need to. Because I know my home and I know my neighbors. When you need to rest, two more will replace you. I will be one of them.

This is my home. Minneapolis is not going to quit. Minnesota is not going to quit. And FUCK EVERYONE who tries to come in here and take from us the PRIDE, LOVE, and COMMUNITY we've built.

As long as I can stand, I'm going to plant my two feet between the oppressors and the home I love.

I love you all. L'etoile du Nord.
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David William with a 'This IS my costume' pin @nrvscrcts.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Gleichschaltung (German): "the act, process, or policy of achieving rigid and total coordination and uniformity (as in politics, culture, communication) by forcibly repressing or eliminating independence and freedom of thought, action, or expression"
merriam-webster.com
Definition of GLEICHSCHALTUNG
the act, process, or policy of achieving rigid and total coordination and uniformity (as in politics, culture, communication) by forcibly repressing or eliminating independence and freedom of thought,...
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
This is a silly-beautiful ukiyo-e print by Utamaro of two women with a baby (1793). One woman makes a silly face at the baby who peek-a-boos from behind a screen.
A highly patterned Japanese print of three figures: two women and a baby. One woman hides behind a screen laughing as she holds the clothes of the baby who crawls on the floor. The baby sees the other woman who is sat at her vanity. She sees the baby and makes a face so the baby will laugh.
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Joe Wrote @joewrote.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
I'm starting to question the legitimacy of the FIFA Peace Prize.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Charles White, Love Letter III, 1977.
A Black person wrapped in a brown cloak, head turned upwards, eyes downcast. Directly above them hovers a large pink conch shell. The background is blue into yellow ombre.
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Emily Wood @ebwood.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Bad Government, 1338–40, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
At the centre of the dais sits Tyrannia, with the appearence of a demon, with horns and fangs. The figure of Tyranny has flowing woman's hair, a cloak with gold embroidery and precious stones, a gold cup in her hand and a goat, the traditional symbol of lust, at her feet. Below is the vanquised Justitia: the scales are broken and scattered around her on the ground. Around Tyranny's throne are gathered the Vices. (Taken from the Web Gallery of Art’s description of the fresco.)
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
This was our rainy day film at school - seen it 100 times or more and it is always beautiful.
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Elizabeth Catlett & Alberto Beltrán, Untitled (Composition for a Peace Poster), c. 1950 www.artic.edu/artworks/222...
Printed image of a group of people, including mother & child, below, with an outsized hand above reaching out to stop a cluster of bayonets
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Maybe, just maybe, a university degree was not/is not solely about social mobility or jobs, but about learning, experimenting, expanding your mind with the close study of the world. Having to continually argue the above point is exhausting, but I'll never stop.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Nearly full moon at sunset. Ombre sky with a pink cloud floating nearby.
Nearly full moon at sunset. Ombre sky with a pink cloud floating nearby.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Since 2018, The Getty has been supporting some of the (imo) most exciting art history out there: The African American Art History Initiative. Search all the projects here: www.getty.edu/projects/afr...
getty.edu
African American Art History Initiative
Project about creating a more robust and accurate history of African American art.
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
day one in mamdani’s new york
a guy wearing a “i ❤️ ny” cap reading the qur’an in one hand and the communist manifesto in the other
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Jeff (Hot Type) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
"For too long those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty." - Mayor Mamdani.
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Jessica Valenti @jessicavalenti.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
When Rebecca Solnit asks you to turn a thread into an essay, you fucking do it. jessica.substack.com/p/cbs-news-f... bsky.app/profile/rebe...
jessica.substack.com
Debating Away Our Humanity
CBS News wants to know if "feminism failed women." Here's what they're really asking.
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
I have to admit, I also always had kinda the wrong idea about Norman Rockwell until I saw the piece "Murder in Mississippi" as a teen in art history class
A painting almost entirely in grey-brown tones, other than the bright red spots of blood. It depicts the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964. One of the two white men, either Goodman or Schwerner, is facedown on the ground. The other stands just left of center of the composition, holding the collapsed body of Chaney, a Black man, close to him while staring off the side of the piece. We can't see what he's looking at, but the shadows of the Klansmen that will kill him and the others in moments are visible clustered around the edge of the frame like malicious spirits.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
These in-between days give me time to watch excellent stuff like this: A short documentary on Charles White as a teacher. If you have 18 mins, this is a treat. youtu.be/ZEYuIf-22jA?...
youtu.be
Life Model: Charles White and His Students
YouTube video by Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 28/12/2025
Scientists in Britain say ancient humans may have learned to make fire far earlier than previously believed, after uncovering evidence that deliberate fire-setting took place in what is now eastern England around 400,000 years ago. to.pbs.org/3KUcGsH
to.pbs.org
Humans were making fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought, study finds
LONDON (AP) — Scientists in Britain say ancient humans may have learned to make fire far earlier than previously believed, after uncovering evidence that deliberate fire-setting took place in what is ...
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Tate Collection @tate.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Edward Ruscha, PRETTY EYES, ELECTRIC BILLS, 1976 botfrens.com/collections/14375/cont…
date inscribed
ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Currently obsessed with this huge Lyotard pastel on vellum (c.1756). His wife, Marie Fargues in 'Turkish Dress' at Rijksmuseum.
Framed drawing of a woman sat leaning on her hand, she wears a loose, white dress and has a blue ribbon tied in her hair. She sits on a low settee with an 'oriental rug' on the floor. Detail of the drawing, a small white vase with pink carnations. One carnation is red and sticks out farther than the rest. Detail of drawing, the rug with blue, red and orange flower like patterns. Detail of drawing, her dress that is white with red and blue flowers. She wears a large, loose belt with a large, sliver buckle.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
'Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.' Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, 1894.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Jenny Holzer, DODDOACID, 2007, (ironically) National Gallery of Art Washington D.C. 🖤
The crisp-edged black silhouette of a handprint on a white background takes up most of this vertical painting under a heading, in which information has been written and redacted. The print is of a right hand, and there is a black dot over each of the four fingers. The area with the handprint is labeled “Palm Prints (Left Hand/Right Hand).” The palm overlaps the numbers 99 at the bottom center, and text appears to be printed in the lower right corner, “DODDOACID 008769.” Text is written to the right of the hand, “b(6) 5” and “b(7)(c) 5.” The form above has fields for Name (Last, First, Middle), SSAN, Case#, Signature, DOB, Date, and “Signature of Official taking Prints.” Answers in all the fields have been blacked out except the Case#, which was left blank, and the date, “23JU/04.” Text appearing to be written above the fields repeats, “b(6) 5” and “b(7)(c) 5.” Text written next to the Signature of Official taking Prints field reads, “b(6)1” and “b(7)(c) 1.” Two black dots at the top center resemble the distinctive hole punch of official documents
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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Redacted Centerville, SD
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KJ Shepherd @kjshepherd.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
It's your birthday, Duane.
Duane Kearns Puryear, holding his panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. It reads, in block letters: "My name is Duane Kearns Puryear. I was born on December 20, 1964. I was diagnosed with AIDS on September 7, 1987 at 4:45 PM. I was 22 old. Sometimes, it makes me very sad. I made this panel myself. If you are reading it, I am dead..."

There are several great resources to learn about Duane, his advocacy, his family, his panel, and the politics of memory and re-creation, especially this one by The Dallas Way: http://www.thedallasway.org/stories/written/2021/9/19/duane-puryears-and-the-quilt-panel

Duane Puryear died in 1991.
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Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Robert Fludd, redacted
Robert Fludd
Black Square
along each side is written: Et sic in infinitum (and so on, to infinity)
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
James Rosenquist, President Elect, 1960-61/1964
Painting featuring JFK, a woman's hand splitting apart a piece of cake, and the front end of a vintage automobile
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
We are, in fact, not running out of good ideas. There are no short cuts to new ideas, but late-stage capitalism wants 'em quick and is palpably desperate to rip all full, meaningful time from us to feed its machine.
Screenshot of a post from Vox.com. It reads: 'America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like AI. But what if AI is the way to restart the world's idea machine?' An image of a lightbulb and then the title of the article 'We're running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones. What if the best use of AI is restarting the world's idea machine?'
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Isokon Gallery @isokongallery.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
A great day out with @sarahj.bsky.social visiting the Tate Modern permanent collection on her excellent ‘Demystifying the Tate Modern’ course( @citylit.bsky.social ).
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
The government of Jamaica has set up a portal for contributing to official relief efforts. I will update this thread if anything analogous opens up for Haiti, Cuba, or the DR supportjamaica.gov.jm
supportjamaica.gov.jm
Support Jamaica
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Good morning from Berenice Abbott, Jean Cocteau and this robot mannequin head (1927)
Black and white photograph of a person sleeping in bed with a white mannequin head under their arm.Black and white photograph of a person sat up in bed with a white mannequin head under their arm.
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion. As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.
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SI: National Portrait Gallery (Bot) @siportraitgallery.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Gordon [sic] Under Medical Inspection npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2012.78
Gordon [sic] Under Medical Inspection
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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Today: researching Anneke van der Freer (1902-1956), part of the De Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (New Objectivity) in Amsterdam, staunch anti-fascist and feminist. Self-Portrait, 1938
A portrait of a person with short hair, cigarette hanging out of their mouth.
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Tyler Green @tylergreenbooks.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Ed Ruscha, Norm’s, La Cienega, on Fire, 1964. Or, more to the point: Ed Ruscha, Norms on fire, 1964.
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
A 2 🌟 review, in which, the critic's entire argument hinges on his anger that the British Museum has collected contemporary prints. Even though the British Museum has always held the national collection of prints & drawings, including the contemporary. Critics should sorta know this stuff.
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Tate Collection @tate.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Dorothea Tanning, A Mi-Voix, 1958 botfrens.com/collections/14375/cont…
date inscribed
Presented by William N. Copley 1959
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Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
computerworld.com
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
One of my favourite artworks ever. 'We are a product of the time. . .'
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Sarah Jaffray @sarahj.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
I know Rothko's art is marketed transcendent and spiritual, but I've always felt his colour fields are rage (barely) assuaged by methodical touch. That he painted these to trap rich 'bastards' as they stuffed their faces makes me love the paintings even more.
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Duquann Sweeney @duquannsweeney.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Great read, and this quote grabbed my attention "In Walker’s treatment, sections of man and horse have been cut apart and resoldered together in a tangle of hooves, haunches, bridles and necks, the parts more or less recognizable but the whole an entirely new, unsettled being." Siddhartha Mitter
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