Art · Observations · Society

Ugliness in art from the Middle Ages to today and a reflection on the displacement of beauty

In the Middle Ages, ugly images were meant to frighten, and through that fright to achieve certain didactic, admonitory ends. In the Baroque era, ugliness is used for emotional engagement; in the age of modernism, the unlovely aesthetic calls for revolt against the bourgeois idea of beauty; postmodernism and post-

NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Society Pages

Highlights from Art Basel, and Not Without Picasso

A huge green inflatable figure stands on Place Vendôme in front of a mansard-roofed façade, beside black cars and a police motorcycle.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Paris

Giant green inflatable figure on Place Vendôme in Paris during Art Basel

The Place Vendôme, one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, looks like this during Art Basel. Does anyone find this an outstanding work of art, or shall we settle for the phrase "such times, such talents"?

Colour caricature: men in long shirts raise their hands skyward, one in red; below, a grinning soldier in a cap with a red star and a sack marked 30.

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Detail of a satirical poster: figures in prayer and a soldier with a red star

Archive · Observations · Society

Kerensky, Uritsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, Lunacharsky, Lenin, Trotsky, Kamenev and Radek Sacrifice Russia to the International

No exaggeration here, incidentally. That is exactly how it is

Heritage · Paris · Humour

The manufacturer of the goods lift used in the Louvre robbery advertises it:

For when you next need to be quick. We will move your treasures, up to 400 kg of them, at 42 metres per minute, and noiselessly too, thanks to a 230 V electric motor.

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture

And she bears you away, and she bears you away Into the ringing snowy distance, The great owl, oh, the great owl: Giraffe, remember me

Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

I swear I had never heard the word VVIP, but such things do happen now

Very-very important persons I am sure that many would be prepared to pay a serious sum for such a designation

Dark metal plaque set in granite paving by a black stone wall. French and Russian text says François Fillon and Vladimir Putin inaugurated the monument. Autumn leaves lie on the stone.

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Bilingual plaque marking a monument's inauguration on 21 June 2011

Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris

Monument to the Soldiers of the Russian Expeditionary Corps in Paris, on the Place du Canada, in the 8th Arrondissement, Dedicated to the Russian Soldiers Who Fought in France as Part of the Expeditionary Corps during the First World War, from 1916 to 191

The monument was unveiled by Vladimir Putin in 2010, when he was Prime Minister of Russia. At the opening ceremony Putin and François Fillon called the monument a sign of the restoration of historical memory and a symbol of the brotherhood in arms of Russia and France.

NB! · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Gendarmes Guard the Galerie d'Apollon, but It Is Rather Late for Borjomi

Art · Books · People

Gennady Shpalikov's poem on the impossibility of return and the wish to go back to 1945

Whether by misfortune or by luck, The truth is simple: Never return To the former places. Even if the burnt-out site Looks quite decent, What we are looking for cannot be found, Neither by you nor by me. A journey backwards I would forbid, I ask you as a

Alexandr Radayev