NB! · Faith · Art · People
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Art · Observations · Humour
Look at this 1904 drawing by Sasha Schneider, “Hypnosis”, reflect that every conversation contains an element of hypnosis, and reconsider your circle of acquaintance
Not medical advice
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Worth Taking
Art · Moscow · Observations · Paris · Humour
I Am Being Painted Again
I am being painted again. Presumably they hope that on canvas I will behave better than I do in life. Serious people, brushes, an easel, inspiration. They say: “We need to capture your inner self.” I say: “Capture the outer one first, so that I can at least recognise myself.
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
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"?
NB!
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