In the Press · Art · Moscow · Museums

The “Choosing Distance” exhibition at the Garage museum and a text about it in a new art media outlet

How to Enjoy Speculations and Fakes at the New Exhibition at Garage? At the height of the pandemic, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art invited artists to reflect on the future, and the result is a large exhibition, "Choosing Distance: Speculations, Fakes, Forecasts in the Age of the Coronacene&

Two black-and-white photographs side by side: an infant on the left and an elderly balding man in a dark suit and tie on the right.

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Childhood and adult portraits of Hitchcock with the same facial expression

Astonishing, really. Hitchcock carried the same unchanging expression through his entire life

Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages · Ethnography

Seychelles coral amulet by Chanel Alphonse at Hide Gallery in Cube.Moscow

At a tiny exhibition at Hide Gallery in Cube.Moscow I came across this island talisman. The sculpture has a most interesting history: the gallerists found it in the studio of an artist who carves such figures from coral in some little village in the Seychelles, to protect his family

Museums · Observations · Mores · People

The history of the Anke pie of the Tolstoy family and the recipe from Dr Nikolay Anke

As Far as I Know, This Cake Was Once Served to Putin at Yasnaya Polyana. The Anke pie is a celebrated dish of the Tolstoy family, served at the museum on special occasions. I was lucky enough to try it, and the pie was to my taste, so I am

Archaeology · Museums · Ethnography

Funerary wreaths of ancient Greece and their place in the rites of farewell to the dead

The funerary rites of Ancient Greece bear some resemblance to the customs of bidding farewell to the dead in many modern cultures. The dead were washed and dressed, a wreath or a precious headband was placed on the head, and only then could one take leave of the deceased at

NB! · Faith · Monarchies · Moscow

The Coronation of Nicholas II on 14 (26) May 1896

Coming Up · Books · Museums · Heritage

Ekaterina Tolstaya, at the presentation of the “Tolstoy” theatre festival, which will run from 24 to 27 June, said that for the centenary of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, besides the restoration of the early eighteenth-century mirrors, the balcony, the b

Ekaterina Tolstaya, at the presentation of the “Tolstoy” theatre festival, which will run from 24 to 27 June, said that for the centenary of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, besides the restoration of the early eighteenth-century mirrors, the balcony, the blind areas and the threshing barn, two new venues

NB! · Books · Observations · Mores · People

Of Sofya Andreyevna I shall say this: who are we to call her a harridan?

Archive · Books · Heritage · People

First of all, the inscription cut into the cornelian of Pushkin's ring seemed a riddle

First of all, the inscription cut into the cornelian of Pushkin's ring seemed a riddle. The poet, according to numerous accounts, was convinced of a special, almost magical significance in the incomprehensible words, now referring them to the Kabbalah, now to other mystical formulae, and even assuring his

Art · Books · Museums · Heritage · People

Tropinin's Portrait of Pushkin and the Posthumous Portrait by Karl Masur

Tropinin's portrait of Pushkin and the posthumous portrait by Karl Masur. In both, the poet wears a ring with a red stone on his thumb. Around this ring, one of Pushkin's favourite, a great many legends have clustered ever since it first appeared. They begin with

Art · Cinema · Museums · New York · Humour

Four-year-old Luise Perthes, captured by her parents' friend Philipp Otto Runge at the moment she realised that in the future she was destined to become a misanthropic lady with pigeons, wandering Central Park in New York in search of Kevin McCallister

Four-year-old Luise Perthes, captured by her parents' friend Philipp Otto Runge at the moment she realised that in the future she was destined to become a misanthropic lady with pigeons, wandering Central Park in New York in search of Kevin McCallister. Portrait of 1805, environs of Hamburg.

Black-and-white photograph of an elderly woman in glasses and a fur hat, wearing a patterned scarf and seated in an upholstered chair.

NB! · Archaeology · Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

Agatha Christie's 46 years of marriage to the archaeologist Max Mallowan

One recalls Agatha Christie's remark about the archaeologist husband, who is so good for a woman because the older she grows, the more interesting she becomes to him. The writer lived to 85, and for 46 of those years she was married to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who

Alexandr Radayev