Personal insights are from Stephanie Heydt, Curator of American Art.

Joseph Stella joined the ranks of modern art in 1913 with his Italian Futurist-related work. At the same time, famous paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge-a very different style and subject-appeared in Stella's paintings, works in pastel colors that feature stylized birds and landscapes with sharply delineated silhouettes and long, curvilinear rhythms. This is the style out of which he developed his Madonna paintings in the following decade. In Purissima, Stella presents the Madonna as the Queen of Heaven, wrapped in a regal cape. There is a curious yet somehow attractive incongruity between the naturalistic face and the totally stylized figure standing imperiously in a blue gown.

The masterpiece of Francis Davis Millet's mature career, The Expansionist was shown and held in high regard at the most important art exhibitions of its time, including the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1899, the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, and the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. The painting was also featured in the 1912 memorial exhibition that followed Millet's tragic death on the Titanic. Exceptionally rich in meaning and historical significance, the painting exemplifies the qualities for which Millet was revered in his lifetime, particularly his ability to poetically depict the curiosity and amusements of life.

In the 1930s Francis Criss was critically acclaimed for his distinctive blend of realism and abstraction. Alma Sewing is his most ambitious and striking work from these heady years. In its celebration of the artist as worker, the painting is a quintessential 1930s expression, but it also makes a personal statement: a self portrait appears in the lower half of the seamstress's lamp. While Alma may be viewed as the artist's model, Criss took care to present her as a skilled professional, surrounded by the tools of her trade.

Two Fang statues. Personal insights are from Carol Thompson, the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art.

Bembe mask from the Congo. Personal insights are from Carol Thompson, the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art.

A Yoruba king (oba) is identified in public by a conical, beaded crown (adé) with a veil that transforms him into a living embodiment of Odùduwà, regarded as the first king. The bird at the top of the crown recalls the Yoruba creation narrative, which describes how Odùduwà used a bird to create the first land in Ilè-Ifè at the beginning of time. The bird identifies the king as a descendant of Odùduwà and emphasizes his role as an intermediary between his subjects and the òrìsà, or gods, in the same way that a bird mediates between heaven and earth.

This sculpture may have been used within the context of mpemba, an organization founded by a famous Kongo midwife concerned with the treatment of infertility. To be a fulfilled adult in traditional African societies is to be an active participant in the ancestral lineage. Without children, one does not become an ancestor. The female figure's studded cap, chiseled teeth and scarification are indicators of social class. The brass tacks and glass eyes are imported, and both are signs of wealth and aristocratic status. The light-reflecting glass is also associated with an ability to see into invisible spiritual and ancestral realms.

Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Francis B. Bunzl Family Curator of European Art, talks about Titian's "Diana and Callisto," one of the paintings featured in the current exhibition at the High Museum, "Titian & The Golden Age of Venetian Painting."

David Brenneman, Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Francis B. Bunzl Family Curator of European Art, talks about Titian's "Diana and Actaeon," one of the paintings featured in the current exhibition at the High Museum, "Titian & The Golden Age of Venetian Painting."