Super puzzle! My only regret is that all the artists are white males, and I say this with all due respect, being one myself. To find alternatives by women is extremely hard, however, since the visual arts were historically so male-dominated that very few female artworks have reached that iconic status that would qualify them for inclusion here. Georgia O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed is hardly well enough known that cluing it as [Two stamens (1936)] would just irritate everyone. Likewise, [Four butterflies and one eyebrow (1940)] would probably not make Frieda Kahlo's "Self Portrait With Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" spring to mind, plus it's 43 letters. Two non-paint artworks, Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" (1936) and Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" (1979) with its iconic 39 place settings probably are famous enough to work, but they ain't paint. Sadly, if you google most famous artworks by women, more than half of the top results are by men. Likewise, we all have heard of Basquiat, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Romare Bearden, and Kara Walker, but how many of us can name a single painting by them that's achieved some status in our collective art consciousness? Mr. Schlossberg was left with limited choices: paintings by us white guys. I hope I have done my job mansplaining this to you!
@john ezra Fair enough. One can argue whether the set of recognizable painting names can or should be dominated by white males but there’s no denying this is in fact the case so it was all the creator had to work with.
@john ezra Oy, Louise Bourgois's Maman might qualify, also not paint but sculpture. Someone could probably do something similar with women writers, however.
@john ezra At this very moment, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a major exhibition of paintings by Mary Cassatt, so some strides are being made to provide more recognition for women painters.
When the dad took up painting, Pop chose the easel. (You might give this one the brush-off.)
@Mike Once again, I am enameled by your artistry. When your dad needed an assistant, did he hire a tempura full-time helper? Run down under, emus!
How to describe this puzzle—a rich collection of so much: familiar paintings, hip slang, visits to foreign countries, bits of history, music, astronomy, some TILs and a near-absence of inanity. However long it took to work this puzzle, it was a pleasure from my clumsy start to plunging into a full hour of hearing Edith sing while I ventured through Peru and once again felt the pleasure of words like "Oglala Sioux" in my mouth. There were sly hidden fills and the power of art, from Picasso's shocking images echoing the present, to Grant Wood's stoic couple on their Iowa farm. I loved this puzzle and l am hoping another that will offer as much. Thank you, Michael Schlossberg.
This is the third time this week (Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday) that ESTONIA has appeared as the answer to a puzzle clue!
This was right up my alley. The value of a liberal arts education, illustrated! The 'Six Basque villagers' were the instant Reveal... and , as ever, a wrench of the heartstrings. Scene: 1967, Art History class... our prof clicked the button and the slide of GUERNICA was projected on the huge screen--unforgettable moment. I had never heard of (let alone seen) the painting. The last entry into the grid (irony!) was the last word of Dali's title for the melted clockfaces. Mini-AHA Moments: So, that's where the Phoenicians disappeared to?! ATLanta has a team called The Hawks? I blame the Editors for "Enthusiast" as a clue for NERD. Hmmph! Name-callers are often LIARS. But any puzzle that references EB White's wonderful book is tops with me! SOME CONSTRUCTOR!
I'm hung up on the fact that the # character on a keyboard is not a "hashtag." It can be referred to as a number sign, hash, or pound sign, but it's not a hash *tag* unless it's *tagging* something in combination with an identifier. Hashtag is a software function such as it's used by Twitter/X, not intrinsic to a keyboard.
@McGuffin Retired software developer here (so much so that we called ourselves 'computer programmers' when I started). In order to converse rapidly with each other, we had shortcut names for some of the special characters, such as: ! = bang # = pound ? = hook ^ = hat etc. Although, in my last two projects, we used Microsoft C#, wherein the '#' was called 'sharp' rather than 'pound'.
Any puzzle with SOME PIG in it is okay by me. Very fun puzzle that played to many of my strengths. Art History, popular culture, life in general. Thanks to all.
@Vaer My experience and sentiments exactly. A veritable Vulcan mind-meld.
Wow…kudos to anyone who was able to solve that. After a 100 streak, gave up on this one with about 30 blank squares, and even knowing the answers I don’t see how I ever would have solved it. Completely out of my wheelhouse. Oh well
@CS I can relate. I truly felt my streak was in jeopardy yesterday, but returning after several hours did the trick. Not singling you out in particular, but I always wonder why people abandon the effort when they still have all day today.
Yikes, the northwest was tough for me. Even with the luck of knowing GUERNICA from just the G and the C, I needed to look up the German word fünf so I could get out of a sticking point and it still took me forever. ALGA crossing GREAVES and APRIORI was brutal.
@Gregg I had the same trouble with the northeast corner. An image of Guernica was the first thing I ever downloaded from the World Wide Web (from WebLouvre in 1995), so that one came easily. But the other words in that area you mentioned were tough.
It takes a lot to get me to come to these parts to complain. I found today's puzzle inaccessible. Natick central, and Saturday level cluing. Easily in my bottom 10.
I absolutely LOVED this puzzle!!! Even though my career path is technical, I've always loved art and have planned many trips around art exhibitions. The fill was fun, too. PETRI as clued is just one example.
That one semester of Art History has lasted a lifetime. And they say a liberal arts education serves no purpose.
@Jim Murray these are all incredibly famous paintings. If you asked 100 NYT subscribers "list 10 paintings", probably many would include all of these in their answer. If you don't know them that's fine but there are zero deep cuts here.
I really enjoyed this Sunday puzzle. The painting theme was lovely. There was even an emu found crossing Peru under the near space of the Inca trails. I could picture all this under a beautiful starry night. Delightful. If I hadn't spent so much time searching for a typo (an itinerant "I " where an " a " should have been} my solve time would have been better. I also learned a new word, pawl. In any case, It was fun. Thank you NYT games and Michael Schlossberg for a wonderful puzzle.
@Bonnie Ann I’m delighted whenever there is an emu in the grid.
Jonathan Richman has four songs named after artists, and all four are in this puzzle. Pablo Picasso (with the Modern Lovers) <a href="https://youtu.be/fT6VGHEUkbA?si=KIDJL9Eej45Y0RMc" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/fT6VGHEUkbA?si=KIDJL9Eej45Y0RMc</a> No one was like Vermeer <a href="https://youtu.be/D1iWz7sCbsY?si=Bk52qBBiHWo03phS" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/D1iWz7sCbsY?si=Bk52qBBiHWo03phS</a> Salvador Dali <a href="https://youtu.be/mPWgg7Gck4U?si=rwgnNRkSBbzG4CxJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/mPWgg7Gck4U?si=rwgnNRkSBbzG4CxJ</a> Vincent Van Gogh <a href="https://youtu.be/Jo0oNRvdkPQ?si=cjICboZcEnWUgBkD" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Jo0oNRvdkPQ?si=cjICboZcEnWUgBkD</a> I’ll be humming these all weekend
@Phil Well, Phil, I would definitely turn the color of avocado if you drove down my street in your Eldorado, and I'd never call you what no one ever called Pablo Picasso! But I'd for sure call an emu that!
@Phil I made a playlist of songs about painting and artists (or which at least mention artists) titled When I Paint My Masterpiece. In addition to the Jonathan Richman songs you mentioned, it includes, Bowie’s Andy Warhol, Paul Simon’s Renee and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War, John Cale’s Magritte, Judy Collins’s Gaugin, Paula Cole’s El Greco, Dar Williams’s Mark Rothko Song, Don Maclean’s Vincent, Joni Mitchell’s The Jungle Line, which refers to Henri Rousseau, and Richard Thompson’s Outside Of The Inside, which name checks Botticelli, among others. Art begets art.
@Marshall Walthew I hope Mark Rothko Song and Vincent aren't back to back in the playlist. Too sad!
Had to get ALgA / gREAVES through trial and error , but who said Sunday had to be easy? Nice puzzle!
What serendipitous timing. I was just vacationing in NYC last week. Went to MOMA my last day in the city before taking train up to Hudson Valley to visit family. Was able to see both THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY and, of course, THE STARRY NIGHT. So lovely to see these and many other artworks in person.
@CV these are two paintings (among many) that are so much smaller than I expected them to be!
We bring our own interpretations when viewing a painting, right? I think the man in AMERICAN GOTHIC is resentful of being assigned that pitchfork when he’d rather be playing AIR GUITAR. The daughter is likewise resentful to be stuck with him, when others get a PEARL EARRING. Both are haunted by THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY of how much better things were before Grant Wood appeared in their lives.
When I lived in New York City I often went to the MOMA just to stare at THE STARRY NIGHT for a while. Loved the puzzle, favorite Sunday for a while. So fun to see those wonderful paintings gradually emerge.
@suejean Van Gogh painted a second starry night painting currently on display in Arles. It is of the river in Arles on a starlit night.
Finished in under a half hour, happily got the painting theme early on from crosses into American Gothic. I am a museum lover, so it was up my alley. Here's a picture I love - the first Webb telescope image laid over Starry Night. <a href="https://i.redd.it/3va3tddsflb91.jpg" target="_blank">https://i.redd.it/3va3tddsflb91.jpg</a>
@Amy Museum Lover here also. I was thinking about posting in response to several others who thanked their various levels of Art History education that I'm an amateur art lover, and that my education in Physics and Astronomy might be relatable to 42A, but your comment gave me the perfct chance to see my interests combined. Thank you for sharing!
@Amy Thank you for sharing that beautiful image.
i also had some trouble with the clue for 37A, but then, so did the constructor. Wikipedia has a lovely story about it. Picasso was living in Paris during WWII and had a photo of the painting on the wall. A German officer was visiting and asked, "Did you do that?" Picasso replied, "No, you did."
I live in TX so my first guess for the supermarket chain was H-E-B.
@Jayne M. I live in Texas, too, but I know that in the NYT crossword, HEB is going to be an abbreviation for Hebrew or Hebrews. IGA was a gimme.
@Jayne M. My guess as well! I could never live anywhere that didn’t have an HEB. God bless Howard E. Butts and his descendents.
My husband was an art major, so we have spent many hours in big museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA and the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve seen at least a couple of these paintings and recognize the titles of the others. But for a typo in PAWL and the perpetual question of whether one says AhH or AAH at the doctor’s office, I breezed through this one and enjoyed the ride.
I liked the art theme. I did not like the abundance of arcane words. The satisfaction of filling in the long entries (the paintings) was short lived, since so many of the crossings remained a mystery. I really wanted to love this puzzle. I did not.
Tricky Sunday for us, hung up on YENTA, which I've never seen nor heard of. My NYT crash course in Yiddish merrily continues
Couldn't finish this one. Got completely hung up in more than a couple of places; and never really caught on to the trick in the clues for the theme answers. To be honest, I'm still not entirely grasping it for some of those answers. That's all on me. Clever puzzle. Just above my pay grade. ..
Some day, perhaps, we will find that the World Cup and its sport offer more to our culture than mere chants of OLE.
@Craig I’m pretty sure I have seen vuvuzela clued in relation to the World Cup. And I don’t remember what puzzle it was in, but just yesterday, I solved one with Spain clued as 2010 World Cup champion. That was a gimme for me, as I still have a Spanish jersey from that tournament.
Craig, Lots of other footie clues and answers in the Crossword. Also, I'd rather not have OLE clued to bullfights. (Best to Bayern)
I have just completed the puzzle. I did not look up any answers, but that is *entirely* due to my husband being forced to chime in, at least 5 times, *and* I have a preposterous ego trip going with my no-lookup gold stars. Otherwise I would have Googled my way through GREAVES RUBEN OGLALALAS REID bock and dunkel but thank heavens this is a *cross*word puzzle and not a trivia test! Theme was breezy and fun and definitely got me through, but the fill had some crunchy bits! But, doggone it! My ego and this streak is gonna crash and burn one of these days… Thanks for the workout Mr. Schlossberg! Always a pleasure!
@CCNY RUBEN Gallego keeps asking me for money and I occasionally send it. That one went in fast. I definitely needed crosses for the rest of your list.
This omnibus puzzle wads in a lot for any word nerd to know or learn. Lotsa fun. Wee! Wii!
I’m from Alberta and NEVER has it been abbreviated to ALB (neighbour of Montana). It is AB or obsolete Alta. Must visit Estonia as it seems a popular place.
@Wark thank you. I came to the comments to find out how ALB was a neighbour of Montana.
@Wark ALB just wanted some lovin’. We had ONT last Thursday and it has appeared that way over three hundred times. ALB has appeared more than 250 times, but usually clued related to a priestly vestment. — — — — — — — — — — — —
This puzzle was really in my wheelhouse. My daughter was an art history major in college and went on to become an art conservator. I used her enthusiasm for art as an excuse to visit many of the western world ‘s famous museums with her, and received a wonderful lesson in art appreciation and history thanks to her tutelage. These trips were great bonding time for us as well. I spotted the theme of the puzzle at Two Iowans (although I confess I did check the puzzle title to confirm my guess), and knew I was in for a fun ride. I did need some crosses to help with GIRLWITHAPEARLEARRING, but was otherwise proud to figure the others out straightaway. A delightful Sunday romp.
Just saw a "Medical Mysteries" article in the Washington Post, and the patient's name sounded very familiar—Aimee Lucido. And yes, she's constructed 12 puzzles since 2010 for the Times, and others elsewhere. It's an interesting article about her pregnancy and lactation related osteoporosis(PLO). Fortunately, she's recovering.
Terrific puzzle. I would have been the perfect person to "test solve" it over at the NYT because even though what I don't know about Art History would fill every museum in the country, I knew all the titles. Not only that -- I could envision all of the paintings in my mind's eye. But I didn't know these paintings well enough to count the objects. Did Michael? Okay, so I knew that there are two people in AMERICAN GOTHIC and that there is one earring in GIRL WITH A PEAR EARRING. But the number of orbs? The number of timepieces? And most seemingly un-countable of all -- the Basque villagers? I Googled THE STARRY NIGHT (my first themer in) and tried to count the number of round things in the sky. But the photo was too small and I wasn't all that sure. Unless the orange thing in the foreground is also a clock (too blurry online to tell), I could only find three timepieces in THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY. I decided that trying to count the villagers in GUERNICA would probably be out of the question. Was Michael able to tell by perusing the Internet? Is there a reference work that gives you this info? Or did he go in person to every museum and do his counting there? Whatever he did, this is an interesting and unusual theme with dense fill. And it actually teaches you something, too. One question for all you Art History majors out there: Why on earth is a painting of four melted clocks called THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY? I've never understood it.
Nancy, Take a closer look (and perhaps stroll down and see it in person); you'll see four timepieces. The text may also answer your question about the title. <a href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018" target="_blank">https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018</a> The persistence of emus
Algae are not plants Sincerely, A puzzled biologist
@Joe - I just wrote a long reply to the first instance of this objection, last night. You should go read it. EMUs love eating algae!
Nah! on the Natick. I knew Carr right away
Very satisfying! I don’t want to call it easy, but almost all the clues clicked well for me. I made really good time on this one. I appreciate the paintings chosen for the theme - evocative, well-known, and timeless. My one challenge here was YENTA crossing with TARTT. Never would have guessed (until I did). It’s especially nice to have The Starry Night as one of the answers, as just this year I heard the Don McLean song Vincent for the first time and have been loving it. What a great tribute to Van Gogh
@Albert The opening line of Don McLean's Vincent is so ingrained that I started to panic a bit when Starry, STARRY NIGHT did not fit in the space.
@Albert Yenta is an old crossword regular. If they had chosen the author Tartt instead of the sports player, that would have been one less cheat for me. I agree, all good, memorable paintings.
Going to call my effort on this one The Persistence of Crosswording. Took a while to get traction, but it paid off when I managed to pull PIAF from some dark corner of my mind to finish!
Good grief but Greaves aggrieved me! I finally got the picture, though.
Very fun puzzle, but I have to admit: hearing the number/pound sign referred to as "hashtag" makes me feel very, very old.
@Jen You're more correct than old though. The # symbol is a number sign, hash, or pound sign. It's not a "hashtag" unless it's used in combination with an identifier to tag something in some software app. On the keyboard alone, it can't be a hashtag. The crossword clue was wrong.
Expected rebus, when "microchip" did not fit seventy-one down
@Bill in Yokohama It was once pointed out to me that microchips in vaccines would be a very inefficient spy tool because they could be anywhere in your body at random. Also needlessly expensive. Our government already has a way of locating us--locating our ear, in fact. Much more precise. They don't have to pay a penny for it, and we helpfully hold it in place for them.
This puzzle had one of the most enjoyable themes that I've ever encountered, and I'm also wishing that Michael Schlossberg's idea of a 21x21-pixel image could have been implemented (only after the correct completion of the grid, of course). As much as I admire 86A-99A, and as non-religious as I am, when I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. about 20 years ago, I was struck by Dali's "self-proclaimed masterpiece," titled "The Sacrament of the Last Supper." <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46590.html" target="_blank">https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46590.html</a> I also admire the other theme entries, particularly 42A, and not just because 42 is the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything."
All: Sorry about the link. I thought I had copied it correctly through Chrome on my Androud phone. It's worth viewing and reading about this work.
I enjoyed this theme, and recognized all of the paintings even though I haven't formally studied art history or appreciation. PAWL was a completely new-to-me word. Took me a long time to get ALBerta, and sorry to see that this particular abbreviation is disapproved by some of our neighbors to the north. (As a US-American who is pretty terrible at geography, I have no opinion on the matter.)
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen It's not so much taht it's disapproved, of. It's wrong.
I’m not disputing that 66D is correct but the province abbreviations always feel so awkward, especially for Alberta. In part because the 2-letter postal abbreviation of AB is used in most applications but also partly because the abbreviated version in the past was Alta. with Alb. being the French abbreviation, at least in my experience. Okay. That’s my nitpick. Very fun puzzle. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.
Some days you are the paper…sometimes the pen. Today I was holding the pen. In spite of a load of trivia there was a lot to hold on to and make sense of. Some olde Englysh trivia too..GREAVES fell to umpteen castle visits as a child. And I owe you five farthing’s say the bells at St Martins. Pictures I had seen in the paint too..Vermeer most recently in The Hague - when missed in Amsterdam at the amazing Vermeer exhibition. Very enjoyable Sunday morning
I was quite surprised and pleased with myself at remembering, with no, or minimal, crossings, all of the theme entries. That made up for the answers that I didn't know, but were filled in by crosses. I'd drawn several blanks, but in most cases it all it took was placing one critical letter to open up a whole section that filled in quickly. Vikki CARR was remembered once I got the C, but it's been decades since I've listened to anything by her. There were a few other spots like that, and I had the puzzle done in just a little over half my usual time. I think my favorite clue was "one of two openings under a bridge", which had me temporarily messed up because I'd been on a pathway under a bridge twice this morning. This was a fun one! Thanks, Michael.
@JayTee For those who have never heard of Vikki CARR, here's her biggest hit: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xM8THr4CwI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xM8THr4CwI</a> In the late 60's, my parents had her music on all the time.
Is this the second appearance of Estonia in one week ? I like to have left overs for Sunday but finished out early, this week.
@Nom De Plume I came here to comment. It’s actually the THIRD Estonia this week! Does Joes Fagliano have some deal with the Estonian Board of Tourism?
After briefly considering Radar O'Reilly and Captain Kirk as the Two Iowans, AMERICAN GOTHIC came immediately to mind. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth a visit to Stone City, Iowa. Grant Wood had an art colony there but of greater interest is the limestone quarry and the limestone buildings in the town.
Nice to see in the XWP some paintings I've seen IRL since childhood. I hope everyone has a smooth and easy solve today. Caitlin: CINDERS are "stuff;" tinder, not tinders, would be stuff. No Natick at the 28 square even if you don't know Vikki CARR. 23A note for Iowans near and far: <a href="https://americangothichouse.org" target="_blank">https://americangothichouse.org</a>/
I’ve seen American Gothic in Chicago and … in Paris! (Along with Hopper’s Nighthawks.) I’ve seen ‘Whistler’s Mother’ in Paris, Nashville, and Pasadena. Good stuff does get around, doesn’t it?
@Clem. And let’s not forget (Doctor?) Bean’s description, I paraphrase, “She’s ugly, but she’s somebody’s mother.”
@Barry Ancona While you were in Iowa, did you ever take the time to detour to Eldon to see the American Gothic building and museum? We went to Des Moines and Indianola several times to see the daughter, and went through Eldon on the way back once. It was interesting, and a nice stop.
Thank goodness for two years of art history.
Nice puzzle! My knowledge of painting titles was a big help. Enjoyed seeing FAGIN, as the name always reminds me of Ron Moody in the musical version singing “Reviewing the Situation”. It’s a melody that sometimes pops into my head when I am flyspecking!
@EPW That was by far my favorite song from "Oliver!".
I always like Michael Schlossberg's puzzles. The fill is all over the place, and the themes are interesting. He always tucks a little science in there and never makes them too easy. Based on the first theme clue at 23A, I was worried that these would be movies, which would be very difficult for me. When I realized they were paintings, I thought, "Uh-oh, not much better." Luckily, they were all very well known, and with a few crosses, I could get them. The only one I had difficulty with was PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY, which, even though I know it, all I could think of was PERSISTENCE OF idiOcY. Having GET it at 80D and ace at 95D didn't help. I did get it straightened out, but that slowed me down.