WTF Art History

Art History 101

Arte Povera: Aesthetics of the Ordinary

In memory of the world-famous Italian art critic Germano Celant, who himself in 1967 invented the term Arte Povera, translated as “Poor Art”, we...

Caroline Galambosova 12 February 2024

History

The Fascinating World of Victorian Cards & Postcards

Who doesn’t enjoy receiving a postcard from a loved one? An alternative to sending formal letters, postcards were first introduced during the...

Ruxi Rusu 7 February 2024

Bizarre

Miyatake Gaikotsu and His Puzzling Postcards

At the beginning of the 20th century, when Japan started embracing the West and rapid industrialization of almost all aspects of life, Miyatake...

Magda Michalska 7 February 2024

Ice Skaters in Painting Sport

Ice Skaters in Painting

Some time ago I went to the ice rink and I realized again how fun it is to glide and feel light (or very heavy when you fall). So I thought it would...

Magda Michalska 31 January 2024

Video

Watch the Hedgehogs from Medieval Bestiaries Come to Life!

I love animals from Medieval bestiaries. They are truly beautiful. So when I came across this video animating the hedgehog described in Latin...

Zuzanna Stańska, Nicole Ganbold 29 January 2024

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

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

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

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