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Art · Observations · Society · Pop Culture
A quotation on sculptor Wheeler Williams's view of the purpose of modern art
I had no wish to comment on the sale of a banana for over six million dollars, but then I came across a quotation from Pat Buchanan, senior adviser to three American presidents: Nixon, Gerald Ford and Reagan. The quotation runs as follows: “Wheeler Williams, one of America's
Art · Museums · Paris · People
A lone boy and his mocking peers in uniform in an autumn school courtyard
At Malmaison, Napoleon's best-known residence, now a museum of the Napoleonic era, a recently acquired painting of the young Bonaparte at Brienne has been hung. What a familiar opening. A lone figure among mocking enemies, rejected by all and accepted by none. What happens next in such
NB! · Archaeology · Humour
He lay there quietly, tucked under a blanket of centuries of sand, and then all these people turned up with their spades
Observations · Humour
Ira Mops, Tikhon, Mr Darcy, Zarema
Ira Mops, Tikhon, Mr Darcy, Zarema. Which is the odd one out? But considering that the barista called my Mr Darcy an abuser who makes other people feel like nonentities, it is hardly surprising that Zarema in the end left without even collecting her order, though she did take Tikhon
Art · Observations · Humour
Limited edition prints by Mikhail Shemyakin in a dental clinic lobby
Rubric. I happened to notice that the waiting room of my dental clinic is hung with limited-edition prints by Mikhail Shemyakin. Yes, they are not cheap, and they show that money was put into the interior. But why Shemyakin, of all artists? To put it mildly, few people come
NB! · Faith · Cinema · People
Patriarch Kirill Awards Emir Kusturica the Order of St Seraphim of Sarov, First Class
Patriarch Kirill has awarded Emir Kusturica the Order of St Seraphim of Sarov, First Class. The award was timed to coincide with the director's 70th birthday. The congratulatory address states that the order was conferred on the filmmaker for his contribution to the preservation of traditional values
Art · Museums · Paris
Taiyo Matsumoto, a contemporary Japanese artist, and his drawing of cats
The Cats of the Louvre. The contemporary Japanese artist Taiyo Matsumoto
Archive · Architecture · Paris
Globe Céleste, the giant globe of the 1900 Paris World Exhibition, and its demolition
This is what Paris looked like in 1900. Beside the Eiffel Tower stands another symbol of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, though one built 11 years later. The round blue-and-gold building with stars is called the Globe Céleste and is, in effect, a very large globe, more than
NB! · Art · Paris
High time to recall the snowy views of Gustave Caillebotte
Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome
The Lancelotti Discobolus, a Roman copy of Myron's statue found on the Esquiline in 1781
The chief masterpiece of the Palazzo Massimo in Rome is one of the best-known ancient sculptures, the Lancellotti Discobolus, 2nd century BC, itself a marble copy of the legendary bronze original of the 5th century BC by the sculptor Myron. The Discobolus was one of the celebrated ancient Greek
Archive · Books · Science · Saint Petersburg
On a Saint Petersburg Rooftop During the Solar Eclipse of 1912
On a Saint Petersburg rooftop during the solar eclipse of 1912. Photograph by Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedev. In his book Sixty Years at the Telescope, the Pulkovo astronomer Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov describes this eclipse thus: “On the seventeenth of April 1912 a partial solar eclipse was observed at Pulkovo. I prepared