WTF Art History

Bizarre

It’s a Dog’s Life According to Cassius Coolidge

Have you ever imagined a world dominated by animals? Have you read Orwell’s Animal Farm and wondered what it would be like to live in such a...

Magda Michalska 29 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Monkey Painter by Jean-Baptiste Chardin

It’s tacky! It’s funny! It’s weird! Yes, Jean-Baptiste Chardin’s The Monkey Painter is definitely not what you would consider in good taste.

James W Singer 29 January 2024

Animals

Hieronymus Bosch’s Creepy Owls

Hieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painter. He must have lived in two worlds simultaneously – the real one and a world of his...

Zuzanna Stańska 29 January 2024

Women Artists

Making Meaning: Charlotte Salomon Painting Her Childhood

The artist Charlotte Salomon was tragically murdered in the gas chamber in Auschwitz at the age of 26, while 5 months pregnant. She left behind two...

Candy Bedworth 27 January 2024

Art reference to Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve in Dark, S03E04, 2017, Netflix. Netflix. Theater & Cinema

Art in the Netflix TV Series Dark

In June 2020 Netflix released the long-awaited third and final season of Dark. The German series, co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, has...

Arianna Richetti 25 January 2024

Art State of Mind

School and Learning in the Eyes of Artists

A lot has changed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: not just the way we approach our health and safety, but also the way children...

Europeana 24 January 2024

Art State of Mind

School in Art: A Sentimental Journey Throughout the Years

2020 marked a transformative year in education, propelling millions of students and educators into the realm of online learning and ushering schools...

Magda Michalska 24 January 2024

Art State of Mind

Synesthesia – The Surprising and Powerful Fusion of Senses in Art

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which a perception from one sense evokes sensation in another one. In the art world, there are works that...

Camilla de Laurentis 22 January 2024

Art State of Mind

Artistic Families: Does Having an Artist Parent Seal Your Fate?

Imagine growing up with an artist mother or father. Watching them create art or making work together could spark your artistic passion. And,...

Marga Patterson 22 January 2024

William Blake, Death on a Pale Horse, ca. 1800, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. Art State of Mind

Not Just in Movies: The Apocalypse in Art

Recently, people worldwide have experienced a sense of being “in the midst of an apocalypse.” Why do individuals instinctively link this...

Camilla de Laurentis 22 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Still Life with a Golden Goblet by Pieter de Ring

Why is food such a popular image for art and culture? For millennia it has been a source of inspiration from ancient Roman mosaics through Dutch...

James W Singer 20 January 2024

Art State of Mind

Taking the Perfect Selfie: Tips from Best Self-Portraits in Art History

To pout or not to pout… that is the question.  From smolders to smiles, duck faces to dog ears, in the age of front-facing phone cameras there...

Tony Heathfield 17 January 2024