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

Special Occasion And News

New Year’s Fireworks in Painting

By Magda MichalskaDecember 31, 2018

Bonfires, parties, or reading in bed. Ideas for how one should spend New Year’s Eve are endless, and everyone should spend it the way they like. Probably most of like to watch fireworks at midnight, but...
Special Occasion And News

Boxing Day with St Stephen

By Magda MichalskaDecember 26, 2018

According to the Catholic calendar, the second day of Christmas commemorates St Stephen, a young deacon of the community of Jerusalem who became the first martyred in the name of Jesus, a fact recounted in Acts...
Special Occasion And News

Most Beautiful Adorations of the Shepherds for Christmas

By Magda MichalskaDecember 25, 2018

Past Christmases we showed you Nativity scenes, wintery landscapes, or even Andy Warhol’s Christmas trees. This year I want to show you paintings which instead of focusing on Baby Jesus, make the real protagonists the shepherds...
Food

Fish Paintings For Christmas Eve Dinners

By Magda MichalskaDecember 24, 2018

In many cultures, Christmas Eve dinner does not include any meat or alcohol because one should keep a vigil fasting and expecting the feastings of Christmas Day. So in anticipation of a lot of food that...
Seasons

Russian Winter in Konstantin Korovin’s Eyes

By Magda MichalskaDecember 20, 2018

If one thinks of winter in Russia, one usually imagines loads of snow, fur hats, and hip flasks filled with some warming drink… What was winter like to one of the most famous Russian Impressionists, Konstantin...
Seasons

Scent of Orange in the Wintery Air: Portraits with Oranges

By Magda MichalskaDecember 17, 2018

What does winter smell to you like? For me, it’s the scent of cinnamon-spiced gingerbread, mulled wine, and of course mandarins. My grandma used to make Christmas decorations by spiking oranges with cloves, turning them into...
Religious Art

Theosophy and Art: There Is No Religion Higher Than Truth

By Magda MichalskaDecember 13, 2018

The subtitle of today’s post is the motto of the American Theosophical Society, which has been functioning since its foundation in New York in 1875. Its most famous leader, Russian Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, taught that Theosophy was not...
Women Artists

An Artist Turned Suffragette. A Story of Olive Hockin

By Magda MichalskaDecember 11, 2018

Ever heard of Olive Hockin? No? Me neither. While browsing pages for my next post about Theosophy, I came across this mysterious artist I had never heard of before. Moreover, it turns out she was quite...
Impressionism

Wilhelm Hansen’s Impressionist Collection that Denmark Refused to Buy

By Magda MichalskaDecember 8, 2018

On the 14th September 1918, Wilhelm Hansen founded one of the finest collections of Impressionist painting in Europe in his summer house not far from Copenhagen. Yet, just four years later his bank went bankrupt and...
Expressionism

The Dreaming Youths: A Children’s Book That Parents Would Hide From Their Kids

By Magda MichalskaDecember 5, 2018

As many other Oskar Kokoschka’s works, also this one met with mixed feelings from the public. In the end, it was meant to be a children’s picture-book, but its images were penetrated with sensuality and eroticism,...