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

21st century

Hoovers Can Be Art – A Post For Perfect Housewives
By Magda MichalskaOctober 3, 2016
Do you like cleaning? I do, though I’m still far from being a Perfect Housewife. But I really like hoovering (especially with Henry). And the American artist Jeff Koons seems to be a fan of hoovers,...
Academism

Naked Truth About Academic Art
By Magda MichalskaOctober 1, 2016
Academicism was a dominant style in European sculpture and painting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was called so because it was dictated by the French Academy of Art, Académie des Beaux-Arts, which was probably...
Pop art

Pauline Boty- The Mother Of Pop Art (And She’s Not American)
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 29, 2016
Surprise, surprise, Pop Art did not begin in the States in the sixties but in the United Kingdom, and already in 1952. Everything started with Eduardo Paolozzi’s series of collages “Bunk” in which he used pieces of...
Artists' Stories

The Story of An Excessively Electric Friendship Between Vincent and Paul
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 28, 2016
People say that you shouldn’t live with your friends because your friendship may deteriorate. And the story of friendship between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin can be used as an exemplary illustration of this saying. An...
20th century

Picasso’s Favourite Instrument…
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 26, 2016
That’s pretty obvious – it’s a guitar! (whoever had any dirty thoughts given the title, go to read about emotions first). It’s probably the most significant instrument for Cubism or even for the entire modern art. It...
Artists' Stories

Suzanne Valadon: The Mistress Of Montmartre
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 23, 2016
She started as a model because she didn’t have money for professional painting classes. She would watch the artists for whom she worked, such as Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec or Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and follow their moves and...
Food

Click Here If You’re On A Diet And Craving Something Sweet
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 22, 2016
I’ve decided – I’m going on a diet. Another one. And this time I’m going to stick to it, honestly! In order to survive, because I have a terrible sweet tooth, I’ve prepared something I can...
Bodies And Erotic Art

Yoko Ono’s Performance You Can Recreate At Home
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 19, 2016
Yoko Ono is not only the wife of late John Lennon. Primarily she is an artist and performer. One of her most famous performances was Cut Piece, first staged on July 20, 1964 at Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto. Ono,...
21st century

Nudes With Eating Disorders
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 18, 2016
To follow up my post about body images and body positivity, I want to show you a touching campaign from a few years ago. The well known nudes from art were remade in order to show...
20th century

How To Become A Surrealist – A Manual to Psychic Automatism
By Magda MichalskaSeptember 17, 2016
In 1924, André Breton defined a completely new word – Surrealism- in his First Manifesto of Surrealism. It was not a trend in art or literature, it was a way of life, he explained. Basing on his dictionary-like entry...