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The arts
The arts, or creative arts, are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of media. Both a dynamic and characteristically constant feature of human life, the arts have developed into increasingly stylized and intricate forms. This is achieved through sustained and deliberate study, training, or theorizing within a particular tradition, generations, and even between civilizations. The arts are a medium through which humans cultivate distinct social, cultural, and individual identities while transmitting values, impressions, judgments, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life, and experiences across time and space. (Full article...)
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Offenbach by Nadar (c. 1870s)
Jacques Offenbach (/ˈɒfənbɑːx/; 20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. (Full article...) - Image 2

The Battle of Alexander at Issus (German: Alexanderschlacht) is a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school. The painting portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Great secured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire. The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur. (Full article...) - Image 3

20 Exchange Place, originally the City Bank–Farmers Trust Building, is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. Completed in 1931, it was designed by Cross & Cross as the headquarters of the City Bank–Farmers Trust Company, predecessor of Citigroup. Rising about 741 feet (226 m) with 57 usable stories, it was one of the city's tallest buildings and the world's tallest stone-clad building upon its completion. Plans to build it as the world's tallest building were scaled back because of the Great Depression. (Full article...) - Image 4Abby is an American sitcom created by Nat Bernstein and Mitchel Katlin that aired for one season on UPN from January 6, 2003, to March 4, 2003. The show revolves around television producer Abigail "Abby" Walker (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Will Jeffries (Kadeem Hardison). After they break up in the pilot episode, they agree to live together as friends in their rent-controlled San Francisco apartment. (Full article...)
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The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture of a robed and crowned woman on Liberty Island, part of New York City, in New York Harbor. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. (Full article...) - Image 6An ashcan comic is a form of the American comic book created solely to establish trademarks on potential titles and not intended for sale. The practice was common in the 1930s and 1940s when the comic book industry was in its infancy, but was phased out after updates to US trademark law. The term was revived in the 1980s by Bob Burden, who applied it to prototypes of his self-published comic book. Since the 1990s, the term has been used to describe promotional materials produced in large print runs and made available for mass consumption. In the film and television industries, the term "ashcan copy" has been adopted for low-grade material created to preserve a claim to licensed property rights. (Full article...)
- Image 7Neptune is the twenty-seventh collection by British designer Alexander McQueen, released for the Spring/Summer 2006 season of his eponymous fashion house. It took inspiration from classical Greek clothing, 1980s fashion, and the work of artists influential in that decade. The runway show was staged during Paris Fashion Week on 7 October 2005 at the industrial warehouse of the Imprimerie Nationale. Two main phases were presented, with 56 looks total: the first phase comprised monochrome black clothing, while the second featured a white, green, and gold palette. The collection's clothing and runway show both lacked McQueen's signature theatricality, and critical reception at launch and in retrospect was negative. Items from Neptune appeared in the 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse. (Full article...)
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The Felix M. Warburg House is a mansion at 1109 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The house was built from 1907 to 1908 for the German-American Jewish financier Felix M. Warburg and his family. After Warburg's death in 1937, his widow sold the mansion to a real estate developer. When plans to replace the mansion with luxury apartments fell through, ownership of the house reverted to the Warburgs, who then donated it in 1944 to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1947, the Seminary opened the Jewish Museum of New York in the mansion. The house was named a New York City designated landmark in 1981 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. (Full article...) - Image 9
The More Hall Annex, formerly the Nuclear Reactor Building, was a building on the campus of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, Washington, United States, that once housed a functional nuclear research reactor. It was inaugurated in 1961 and shut down in 1988, operating at a peak of 100 kilowatts thermal (kWt), and was officially decommissioned in 2007. (Full article...) - Image 10Aliens is a 1986 science fiction-action film written and directed by James Cameron. It is the sequel to the 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, and the second film in the Alien franchise. Set in the far future, it stars Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. When communications are lost with a human colony on the moon where her crew first encountered the alien creatures, Ripley agrees to return to the site with a unit of Colonial Marines to investigate. Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, and Carrie Henn are featured in supporting roles. (Full article...)
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William Shuter, Portrait of William Wordsworth, 1798. The earliest known portrait of Wordsworth, painted in the year he wrote the first drafts of "The Lucy poems"
The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworth's first major publication and a milestone in the early English Romantic movement. In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing, and death. (Full article...) - Image 12
The Clemuel Ricketts Mansion (also known as the Stone House, the William R. Ricketts House, and Ganoga) is a Georgian-style house made of sandstone, built in 1852 or 1855 on the shore of Ganoga Lake in Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was home to several generations of the Ricketts family, including R. Bruce Ricketts and William Reynolds Ricketts. Originally built as a hunting lodge, it was also a tavern and post office, and served as part of a hotel for much of the 19th century. (Full article...) - Image 13
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era. (Full article...) - Image 14Master of Puppets is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records. Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen, it is the band's final album to feature bassist Cliff Burton. While touring in support of Master of Puppets, he died on September 27, 1986, after the band's tour bus was involved in an accident in Dörarp, Sweden. (Full article...)
- Image 15An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory is a 2010 textbook by the British political theorist Alasdair Cochrane. It is the first book in the publisher Palgrave Macmillan's Animal Ethics Series, edited by Andrew Linzey and Priscilla Cohn. Cochrane's book examines five schools of political theory—utilitarianism, liberalism, communitarianism, Marxism and feminism—and their respective relationships with questions concerning animal rights and the political status of (non-human) animals. Cochrane concludes that each tradition has something to offer to these issues, but ultimately presents his own account of interest-based animal rights as preferable to any. His account, though drawing from all examined traditions, builds primarily upon liberalism and utilitarianism. (Full article...)
Featured pictures
- Image 2Poster for the United States National Park Service at Federal Art Project, by Frank S. Nicholson (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 4Computer generated still life, by Gilles Tran (re-rendered by Deadcode) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 5Fliteline medallion of Gemini 9A, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 6Stucco relief drawing at Maya civilization, by Ricardo Almendáriz (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 7Rosette Bearing the Names and Titles of Shah Jahan, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 8Zaandam at Etching revival, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 10Robbins medallion of Apollo 14, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 11Doorway from Moutiers-Saint-Jean, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 13Madonna and child at Chiaroscuro], by Bartolomeo Coriolano (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 14 Nautilus, by Edward Weston (restored by Yann) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 16"Wikipedian Protester" at xkcd, by Randall Munroe (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 17Sunrise, Inverness Copse, at and by Paul Nash (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 18Ijazah, by 'Ali Ra'if Efendi (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 19A Brush for the Lead at Sleigh Ride, by Thomas Worth (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 20Fliteline medallion of Gemini 7, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 22Golden earrings from Gyeongju, by the National Museum of Korea (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 23Grant of Arms at Spanish heraldry, unknown author (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 25Fliteline medallion of Gemini 8, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 28Ornamental latin alphabet at Initial, by F. Delamotte (restored and vectorized by JovanCormac) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 30Movement Study, at and by Rudolf Koppitz (edited by Basile Morin and Yann) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 31Robbins medallion of Apollo–Soyuz, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 32Fliteline medallion of Gemini 10, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 33Robbins medallion of Apollo 9, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 34Weeki Wachee spring, Florida at Weeki Wachee Springs, by Toni Frissell (restored by Trialsanderrors) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 35Ringlemere Cup, by the Portable Antiquities Scheme/Daniel Pett (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 36The Tiburtine Sibyl and the Emperor Augustus, by Antonio da Trento (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 37Your Motherland Will Never Forget, at and by Joseph Simpson (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 39Costume designed by David for legislators, at and by Jacques-Louis David and Vivant Denon (edited by Mvuijlst) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 40The Pirate Publisher—An International Burlesque that has the Longest Run on Record at The Pirates of Penzance, by Joseph Keppler (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 41Isle of Graia Gulf of Akabah Arabia Petraea at Caravan (travellers), by David Roberts and Louis Haghe (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 42Crown of the Andes, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 44Paper cutout featuring the Lord's Prayer, at and by Martha Ann Honeywell (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 45scene from the Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Elco. Corp. (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 461910 cover of Life, by Coles Phillips (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 48First page of Codex Mendoza, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 52Stained-glass example of chromostereopsis, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 54Robbins medallion of Apollo 12, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 55Tilework on the Dome of the Rock, by Godot13 (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 56Segment of the Surrogate's Courthouse mosaic, by Rhododendrites (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 57Caricature of Wang Lianying, at and by Jefferson Machamer (restored by Crisco 1492) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 58Ayyavazhi emblem at Ayya Vaikundar, by Vaikunda Raja (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 59Dali Atomicus at Salvador Dalí, by Philippe Halsman (edited by Trialsanderrors) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 60Beer Street at Beer Street and Gin Lane, by Samuel Davenport after William Hogarth (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 61Robbins medallion of Apollo 7, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 63Terragen scene at Scenery generator, by Fir0002 (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 64The King of Brobdingnag and Gulliver at Gulliver's Travels, by James Gillray (restored by Crisco 1492) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 65Robbins medallion of Apollo 10, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 66Nude study at Figurative art, by Kenyon Cox (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 67Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, by Rembrandt (edited by Crisco 1492) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 69Taos Pueblo, by Ansel Adams (edited by Kaldari) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 70Alchemist's Laboratory at Heinrich Khunrath, by Hans Vredeman de Vries (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 71Fliteline medallion of Gemini 11, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 73Cabiria poster, by N. Morgello (edited by Jujutacular) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 74Fliteline medallion of Gemini 5, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 75The Pig Faced Lady of Manchester Square and the Spanish Mule of Madrid, at Pig-faced women, by George Cruikshank (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 76Robbins medallion of Apollo 13, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 81"When We All Believe", at and by Rose O'Neill (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 83Pixel art, by ReffPixels (vectorized by OmegaFallon) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 84Vanity Fair cover art, by Ethel McClellan Plummer (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 85The battle of Mazandaran at Mazandaran province, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 87Love or Duty at Chromolithography, by Gabriele Castagnola (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 88Mirror writing, by Mahmoud Ibrahim (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 89Coca-Cola advertising poster, unknown author (edited by Victorrocha) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 90Idi Amin caricature, by Edmund S. Valtman (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 91Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, by Ansel Adams (restored by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 92The Miraculous Sacrement at Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, by Alvesgaspar (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 93Fliteline medallion of Gemini 12, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 94The Onion Field, at and by George Davison (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 95Celadon kettle, by the National Museum of Korea (edited by Crisco 1492) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 96The Custer Fight at Lithography, by Charles Marion Russell (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 97The Thin Red Line at Remembrance poppy, by Harold H. Piffard (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 98Robbins medallion of Apollo 15, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 99Pepper No. 30, by Edward Weston (edited by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 100H.M.S. Pinafore poster, by Vic Arnold (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 101The Lady with the Lamp at Florence Nightingale, by Henrietta Rae and Cassell & Co (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 102Magna Carta (An Embroidery), by Cornelia Parker (edited by Bammesk) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 103Crochet table-cloth, by Alvesgaspar/Júlia Figueiredo (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 104Mao Gong ding, by the National Palace Museum (edited by Crisco 1492) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 106Robbins medallion of Apollo 17, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 107Robbins medallion of Apollo 11, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 108Gin Lane at Gin Craze, by Samuel Davenport after William Hogarth (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 109Fliteline medallion of Gemini 6A, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 111Gothic plate armour, by Anton Sorg (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 113Fantascope at Phenakistiscope, by Thomas Mann Baynes (animated by Basile Morin) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 114Robbins medallion of Apollo 8, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 116The Adoration of the Shepherds at History of Christianity in Ukraine, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 117Pond in a Garden at Tomb of Nebamun, unknown author (edited by Yann) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 118Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, by Ansel Adams (restored by Yann and JayCubby) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 119Christmas angel at Gloria in excelsis Deo, by J. R. Clayton and The Brothers Dalziel (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 120Fliteline medallion of Gemini 3, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 121Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal panel, by Zach Weinersmith (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 122Autochrome nude study, by Arnold Genthe (edited by Chick Bowen) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 123Robbins medallion of Apollo 16, by the Robbins Company (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
- Image 124Fliteline medallion of Gemini 4, by Fliteline (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Others)
Vital articles

Literature is any collection of written work. The term is also used more narrowly for writings considered an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. (Full article...)
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