People-birds, beautiful ladies and the joy of life
They worked in the harsh conditions of socialist realism, but paintings with farmers and tractors are not their style. Their paintings were crushed by bulldozers, not allowed to go to…

Continue reading →

premium
Byzantine female icons of Klimt
The popularity of Gustav Klimt can be envied by any artist and any man. It is safe to say that Gustav Klimt lived a happy life. From childhood, he was…

Continue reading →

Little-known facts about the dark side of the brilliant artist Caravaggio
He was one of the great masters of baroque, and his difficult life in many respects determined his creation, which today is admired throughout the world. And Caravaggio himself believed…

Continue reading →

cartouche

“The Invisible Artist”, which creates paintings on people, like on canvases

Since today many acts of civil protest in China remain strictly prohibited, a well-known Chinese artist-photographer, master of the original creative camouflage of people, Liu Bolin invented a unique technique for expressing one’s own opinion and view on pressing problems of society. Working with his team of professionals, Bolin seems to dissolve himself and his employees in space, merging with the environment, which emphasizes that modern man is invisible and of little significance to government structures and those in power.

He, with the help of his assistants, fits organically into both urban and natural landscapes, as well as supermarkets and various works of art. Bolin as a canvas can stand, without moving, in one place for several hours against a selected background, while his assistants paint it from head to toe, trying to mix it with the environment. Continue reading

What is the secret of the appeal of romances: The history of the genre from Spanish to cruel

Touching songs performed by Larisa Ogudalova, a dowager, are just one of the signs of the romance, if we take into account its entire history. But once upon a time it began with other songs – both in terms of theme and method of performance. True, the main secret of the romance, which makes it so attractive for centuries, remains, perhaps, unchanged.

His predecessor has a rather distant relation to the usual idea of ​​romance – and the point is not only that the evolution of this vocal and musical genre has been going on for many centuries. In an attempt to clarify the history of the romance, musicologists turned to Spain in the XIV – XV centuries, when songs in the local dialect began to be heard both at the royal court and at festivities – in contrast to church psalms performed in Latin. It is believed that the kingdom of Aragon became the birthplace of the romance, from where these songs spread through Spain through the efforts of the troubadours. Continue reading

VARIETIES OF GENRE STILL LIFE

Still life (with FR. nature morte-dead, inanimate nature) – artistic depiction of various household items.
In the XV-XVI centuries still life was considered as part of a historical or genre composition. Early still lifes often performed a utilitarian function, for example, as a decoration of Cabinet doors or to mask a wall niche.
As an independent genre of painting still life was formed in the XVII century in the works of Dutch and Flemish artists.
The term nature morte (dead nature) appeared in the XVIII century and reflected a dismissive attitude to the still life by the academic community, which preferred the “high” genres, the area of which was “living nature” (historical, battle, allegorical, religious, mythological). Until the end of the XIX century still life was considered as a “lower” genre.
The heyday of still life painting is associated with the invention in the XIX century of the method of production of tube paints and the appearance of plein-air painting. Continue reading

How Pavel Tretyakov competed with the emperor
Before the revolution, patronage of the arts was considered not only charitable, but also beneficial for the donor himself, and the point here was not taxes at all. According to…

...

Solid Charm: Elizabeth Boehm Vintage Postcards
Postcards of Elizabeth Boehm were incredibly popular at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. They could be seen in the collections of the imperial family, in the Tretyakov Gallery and…

...

How Pavel Tretyakov competed with the emperor
Before the revolution, patronage of the arts was considered not only charitable, but also beneficial for the donor himself, and the point here was not taxes at all. According to…

...