WTF Art History

Erotica

Best Male Nudes in Art History (NSFW!)

Nudity in art first became significant in ancient Greece. The athletic competitions at religious festivals celebrated the male body as an embodiment...

Anuradha Sroha 18 July 2020

Medieval Art

Danse Macabre: Dancing with Skeletons

Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) – a weird dance between people and skeletons. You might think that it is a scene from a horror movie. But...

Zuzanna Stańska 7 July 2020

Art History 101

Everything You Need to Know About Primitivism

Primitivism was a facet of Modern art inspired by the works of untrained artists in non-industrialized societies, namely tribal Africa and Oceania.

Alexandra Kiely 10 June 2020

Rococo

Ivan VI of Russia: The Baby Emperor

Ivan VI of Russia (Ivan Antonovich) was the youngest Russian tsar in history. He was proclaimed emperor when only two months old, and his 22-year-old...

Guest Author 3 June 2020

Museum Stories

Richard Saltoun Gallery: Bodily Objects – Review

Bodily Objects, curated by Philomena Epps, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London. 1.05.2020 – 30.06.2020, access online viewing room here. The...

Guest Author 20 May 2020

Erotica

Female Nude Codes in Painting From Giorgione’s Venus to Odalisques and Olympias

Museums are filled with paintings of nude women. It is a very codified practice that has changed over the ages. Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus...

Maia Heguiaphal 5 May 2020

Surrealism

Gradiva: What Did Freud and the Surrealists See in Her?

A woman who walks. That’s what Gradiva (the name of an anonymous woman from an antique bas-relief) means, as given by a fictional character...

Magda Michalska 27 April 2020

Bizarre

Lowbrow Art, Subcultural Movement or Legitimate Art Generation?

Somewhere between the late 1960s and the 1970s, a new artistic movement emerged from the underground scene. At that time it didn’t have any...

Errika Gerakiti 21 April 2020

Art State of Mind

What to Do with Your Time when in Quarantine? Tips from Art!

Seriously, what should I do with my time if I’m in real quarantine and I cannot go out for two weeks? How to avoid going crazy without...

Magda Michalska 22 March 2020

WTF Art History

Lockdown Artsy Entertainment Toolkit

Initially the idea of a lock-down and extended opportunity to work from home may look a tiny bit appealing. No more commuting, no more dressing up...

Joanna Kaszubowska 21 March 2020

Museum Stories

Whitechapel’s Radical Figures and the Famous Paintings that Inspired Them

In Whitechapel Gallery’s Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium, ten of today’s key figurative painters use historical art...

Yasmin Ozkan 18 March 2020

Erotica

Be A Lady, They Said: the Poem in Paintings

Possibly the most viral video of the week is the poem by Camille Rainville Be a Lady, They Said recited brilliantly by Cinthia Nixon (Sex and the...

Magda Michalska 6 March 2020