Magda Michalska

Magda, art historian and Italianist, she writes about art because she cannot make it herself. She loves committed and political artists like Ai Weiwei or the Futurists; like Joseph Beuys she believes that art can change us and we can change the world.

Stories By Magda Michalska

Art State of Mind

The International Dispute over Montezuma’s Tiara
By Magda MichalskaNovember 25, 2020
2021 will be the year of a double anniversary for Mexicans, marking 200 years since liberation from Spanish dominion, and 500 years since the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec city which gave foundation to modern Mexico...
Artists' Stories

Tina Modotti: Photographer Made Revolutionary
By Magda MichalskaNovember 17, 2020
Her biography is a ready-made storyline for a movie (Hollywood, do you hear me?). In the end, how many of us are poor workers who make an acting career in Hollywood, who then become photographers who...
Abstraction

Michael West, Woman Artist Excluded from the Ab-E Gang
By Magda MichalskaNovember 12, 2020
The American art world in the era of the post war boom of Abstract Expressionism was definitely male-oriented. And the career of Corinne Michelle (Michael) West was its victim. She could have been famous. But she...
19th Century

Capturing Light: The Pioneers of Photography in France
By Magda MichalskaNovember 11, 2020
It all officially began in 1839 in two countries at once: in Britain, the British Royal Academy announced the discovery of a method of capturing images on paper by the action of light; in France, the...
19th Century

The Mysterious Pinturas Negras Reveal Goya’s Darkest Secrets
By Magda MichalskaNovember 9, 2020
There are already several articles that treat in detail the life and works of Francisco Goya. If you want to learn about his career or most famous works, look them up in our magazine because here...
20th century

Miyatake Gaikotsu and his Puzzling Postcards
By Magda MichalskaNovember 4, 2020
At the beginning of the 20th century, when Japan started embracing the West and rapid industrialization of almost all aspects of life, Miyatake Gaikotsu (funnily enough, gaikotsu means ‘skull/skeleton’ in Japanese) was the one who questioned...
Art Travels

Visit in Madrid or Online: The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
By Magda MichalskaNovember 1, 2020
We’ve found yet another reason to visit Madrid: The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza! Alright, traveling nowadays is a painful topic as it’s best we all stay home and admire the highlights of the museum Thyssen-Bornemisza online. So,...
dailyart

Painting of the Week for All Saints: A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet
By Magda MichalskaNovember 1, 2020
Who nowadays doesn’t appreciate Gustave Courbet‘s striking realism? We all do, but as happens with many geniuses, Courbet was not appreciated by his contemporaries, especially at the beginning of his career. In 1851 he presented this...
20th century

Where is Ana Mendieta? The Unresolved Mystery
By Magda MichalskaOctober 29, 2020
“Where is Ana Mendieta?” was the question shouted in 1992 by over 500 protesters lined in front of the newly opened Guggenheim Museum site in SoHo, New York (closed nowadays). The inaugural show featured the work...
19th Century

Philipp Otto Runge: The Seer of the Mysteries of God
By Magda MichalskaOctober 28, 2020
Runge died of consumption at the same age as Christ, which to those who believe in signs might be crucial since Philipp Otto Runge was a mystic who claimed to “see through the mysteries of God”...