#20th century

Contemporary Art

Boterismo in Art: Fernando Botero’s Chubby Paintings

Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, demonstrates how differently we can all view the same object. Although Botero was known for depicting everything...

Gabriela Hurtado 15 September 2023

Art History 101

How to Read Piet Mondrian

We can all recognize Mondrian’s work in a second. Our eyes navigate through the lines jumping from color to color. His artistic career...

Celia Leiva Otto 13 September 2023

Contemporary Art

How Roman Opałka Envisioned Infinity

In 1965 a French-born Polish painter Roman Opałka came to an important decision. While sitting at the Café Bristol in Warsaw waiting for his wife...

Caroline Galambosova 13 September 2023

OLGA WISINGER-FLORIAN, Summer‘s Evening (Roses in Full Splendor), 1896 © Leopold Private Collection Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna/Manfred Thumberger Painting

Olga Wisinger-Florian: A Woman Floral Painter in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

For a long time the memory of Viennese flower painter Olga Wisinger-Florian slumbered underneath a duvet of withered petals. Who knew that it was she...

Kero Fichter 11 September 2023

WTF Art History

So Bad That It’s Good: 5 Worst Art Restorations

Artworks are a legacy of humanity and as such, they must be well preserved – and they usually are, thanks to museums and cultural institutions.

Rute Ferreira 7 September 2023

Bizarre

The Story of Damien Hirst’s Famous Shark

This shark is considered the iconic work of British art from the 1990s and has become a symbol of Britart worldwide. It was funded by Charles Saatchi...

Zuzanna Stańska 4 September 2023

Surrealism 101: Everything You Need to Know Rene Magritte The False Mirror Surrealism

Surrealism 101: Everything You Need to Know

Surreal. Adj. Strange; not seeming real; like a dream Cambridge dictionary Do you know the origin of this word? It comes from one of the most...

Tommy Thiange 1 September 2023

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism 101: Everything You Need to Know

Abstract Expressionism is an art movement that emerged in the USA in the 1940s and 1950s. Some of its most prominent artists are Jackson Pollock,...

Errika Gerakiti 1 September 2023

Surrealism

Erna Rosenstein – Surrealist in the Country Where the Movement Didn’t Exist

Erna Rosenstein was born Jewish. This fact weighed on her whole life because Rosenstein’s family lived in Lviv, Ukraine, and to complicate things...

Magda Michalska 25 August 2023

Surrealism

The Surrealistic World of Dora Maar

The name Dora Maar reminds most people of Pablo Picasso. But apart from being his muse and lover, she was first and foremost an ambitious and...

Michel Rutten 25 August 2023

Leonora Carrington, Self-portrait, 1938-1939, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Detail. Surrealism

Leonora Carrington and Her Surrealist Life in Her Own Words

Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) is considered one of the greatest but most neglected British Surrealists. Her life story is a fascinating one: she...

Magda Michalska 25 August 2023

Nicholas Roerich, Legend, from the series Messiah. ca. 1923, Christie's. Painting

The Art and Spirituality of Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich, a prominent member of the early 20th-century art world, was distinguished by his unique artistic style and profound spiritual...

Maya M. Tola 24 August 2023