Bizarre

Museum Stories

History of Medicine in Art: Collection of Artworks at Wellcome Library in London

London is a great place to be for the curious and inquisitive. Public museums, galleries, and libraries are homes to a vast collection of wonderful...

Bolor Jargalsaikhan 7 April 2023

WTF Art History

5 Artists Who Likely Suffered From Syphilis

Also known as the French disease or great pox, syphilis was a common sexually transmitted disease in Europe in the 1800s. In fact, 10-15% of...

Kelly Hill 4 April 2023

WTF Art History

Attention, Dangerous Art! How Art Can Hurt You

Every once in a while, an accident involving an artwork happens. Usually, it is the artwork that ends up damaged, but sometimes it is the audience...

Joanna Kaszubowska 3 April 2023

Aleksandra Waliszewska, Untitled, 1997-2022, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland. Contemporary Art

The Dark Arts of Aleksandra Waliszewska

Rather unsettling, quite macabre, and more than slightly erotic, the paintings and illustrations by Polish artist Aleksandra Waliszewska are...

Marta Wiktoria Bryll 23 March 2023

WTF Art History

Famous People and Their Doppelgängers in Art

Doppelgänger is a word of German origin (doppel- meaning “double,” and -gänger meaning “goer”). In old German folklore, it was believed...

Vithória Konzen Dill 16 March 2023

Ernest Higgins Rigg, The Potato Pickers, undated, Bradford Museums, UK. ArtUK. Dine & Wine

The Potato in Fine Art

Do you prefer your potatoes in a landscape or in a still life or in a stew? Come with me on a tour of the humble potato in art.

Candy Bedworth 2 March 2023

Johannes Vermeer, A Girl Asleep, 1656–1657, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Baroque

Vermeer’s Desperate Housewives

Johannes Vermeer was a master of ambiguity. His silent and calm interiors, and beautiful Dutch women, although innocent at first glance, seem to be...

Magda Michalska 2 March 2023

Animals

Blue Faience Hippopotamuses of the World – Unite!

Blue faience hippopotamus was a popular statuette in ancient Egyptian art. They considered it to have positive traits associated with fertility and...

Zuzanna Stańska 15 February 2023

Theater & Cinema

H. R. Giger: Father of the Alien, Nightmares, and All Things Obscure

H.R. Giger is the pioneer of Fantastic Realism. His artworks are iconic and define the very notion of sci-fi horror. His biomechanical dreamscapes...

Errika Gerakiti 2 January 2023

Bizarre

The Most Bizarre Building in Scotland: Pineapple House

You likely would not connect pineapples and architecture, right? Wrong! There exists a real artistic folly, and not in Las Vegas where such a...

Magda Michalska 30 November 2022

History

When in Mexico: Mysterious and Beautiful Flower Crowned Nun Portraits

Gambol into the lobby of most Mexican hotels, or visit any antique store in Mexico, and you’re bound to find a portrait of an 18th or 19th-century...

Guest Profile 23 November 2022

Medieval Art

Inkulinati – Medieval Manuscripts Come to Life in a New Video Game

If you’ve ever wanted to step inside a medieval manuscript, here’s your chance. Inkulinati, an incoming strategy-based video game, was inspired...

Alexandra Kiely 15 November 2022