Edvard Munch was not what one would call a happy soul. After all, this was the man who painted “The Scream”. By the age of five he had lost his mother to disease, his favorite sister followed her nine years later, his father was an overly pious depressive, and madness, poverty, and ill health haunted the family. After studying ... Read More »
So you’re off to save the earth from a one-world government by protesting outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Bully for you, moonbeam. But while you’re packing up your hoodie sweatshirts, bandannas, and Molotov cocktails, here’s a few spots to take note of for a little fun between clashes with the riot police. Davos is so much ... Read More »
God bless the juvenile minds over at Cracked for going on a rather tawdry “Easter Egg hunt” in the European classics. They find a gigantic brain in Michaelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel” fresco (1475-83), porn in the same artist’s “Last Judgement” (1534-1541), and, yes, bared backsides in Bruegel the Elder’s “Netherlandish Proverbs” (1559, left). It’s a touch “The Da Vinci Code”, but ... Read More »
Stumbling, bumbling, a guest at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art fell into an early Picasso work on Friday, tearing a six-inch scar into one of its lower corners. It was nothing personal—the woman simply lost her footing during an adult education course at the museum—and, of course, museum staff quickly took the work, “The Actor” (1904, left), over to the ... Read More »
Just the other day, a newly discovered painting (above left) by reclusive English modern master, Lucian Freud, was unveiled before heading to auction. Like so much of Freud’s work, the piece exalts in the rheumy yellows, reds, and purples of human flesh that most painters avoid. Unlike other Freud examples, though, this one gives a peek into the secretive ... Read More »
Attention to our friends in the Great White North and those headed there — photographer Adad Hannah will be exhibition his work “Cuba Still (Remake)” at the Pierre-François Ouellette Contemporary Art Gallery in Montreal starting with a nice wine-and-cheese premiere tonight. In short, Hannah is a master of recreating old photographs, famous trompe l’oeil images, and chiaroscuro classics with ... Read More »
Nigeria’s Nollywood scene is one of the most exciting movements in cinema today. With its renegade, DIY sensibility, the industry churns out movies by the thousands, making it one of the world’s biggest film industries. The scene has remained mainly local, though. But this spring, New York will get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Nollywood when South African photographer Pieter ... Read More »
If all our talk of our upcoming guide to Art + Travel Europe has you thirsting to see the real thing, then you’re in luck–well, at least if you live in Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago, the Windy City’s premier art museum, is currently hosting Caravaggio’s 1601 masterpiece Supper at Emmaus, on loan from the Nation Gallery of London, ... Read More »
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