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Artist Stories

An Orientalist from the Orient: Theodoros Rallis

Not every Orientalist painter journeyed to the Orient or the Levant to observe and interact with the socio-cultural fabric they intended to portray...

Erol Degirmenci 3 November 2022

Alexandre Cabanel, Cleopatra, 1887, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cleopatra by Alexandre Cabanel

Queen Cleopatra is a popular subject today – as she was in the late 19th century. Alexandre Cabanel’s Cleopatra explores a single moment of her...

James W Singer 3 November 2022

Art History 101

Orientalism – Quick Explanation

19th-century Europeans were fascinated by the Near East and North Africa. Everything began roughly around the time of the Napoleonic invasion of...

Magda Michalska 3 November 2022

Bizarre

Art Only Exists Because Death Exists. Skulls in Art

Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated every year across Mexico. A far cry from the Western commercial horror-fest of Halloween, it is a glorious...

Candy Bedworth 2 November 2022

Painting

11 Famous Funeral Paintings of Western Art

Funeral practices are deeply ingrained in all cultures. Varied traditions around the globe reflect widespread beliefs and values. On this day when we...

Zuzanna Stańska 1 November 2022

Edvard Munch, Love and pain, 1895, oil on canvas. The Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway. Bizarre

5 Vampire Paintings in Art

Vampires are one of the most known mythical creatures in history. The origins of their legend date back to ancient civilizations. Some ancient...

Errika Gerakiti 31 October 2022

History

Joanna of Castile: Story of a Misunderstood Queen in Portraits

Joanna of Castile, also known as Joanna the Mad, was never expected to inherit the throne of Castile and Aragon in the 16th century. Due to her...

Anna Ingram 31 October 2022

Bizarre

9 Creatures by Odilon Redon That Will Give You the Creeps

The creatures by Odilon Redon look truly otherworldly. During the early years of the artistic activity of this Symbolist painter, printmaker,...

Zuzanna Stańska 31 October 2022

Art History 101

What Is a Wunderkammer? Best Cabinets of Curiosities

The characteristic of arousing surprise for the observer is typical for the so-called Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities. These are real rooms of...

Caroline Galambosova 31 October 2022

Contemporary Art

Bill Viola: Video Art and Renaissance Classics

Bill Viola is an internationally recognized contemporary video artist. His work played a huge part in the establishment of video as an important...

Zuzanna Stańska 30 October 2022

nam june paik tv garden Video

Video Art Pioneer: Nam June Paik in 5 Artworks

It’s easy to notice the widespread presence of media arts in almost all aspects of our daily lives, but that wasn’t always the case: when new...

Ania Kaczynska 30 October 2022

Niki de Saint Phalle surrounded by her sculptures painting Le Monde, c. 1981. Photograph by Laurent Codominas © 2010 Niki Charitable Art Foundation. Courtesy of Opera Gallery. Detail. Review

Find Paradise with Niki de Saint Phalle: Paradis Retrouvé in Opera Gallery

This week marks the birthday of Niki de Saint Phalle, the Franco-American artist who died in 2002. To celebrate the occasion, I visited a new...

Louisa Mahoney 29 October 2022