NB! · Archive · Art · People

Claude Monet in His Garden at Giverny

Pale statuette of a nude Judith with a sword, holding the head of Holofernes by the hair above a pedestal; a clover image covers the lower body.

Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

Statuette of Judith with a sword and the curly-haired head of Holofernes

Little Judith, 1525, by the German sculptor Conrad Meit, alabaster, Bavarian National Museum. Holofernes has really lovely hair

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Humour

Exhibition “Apophenia” on the search for phantom connections opens at Ground Solyanka

A stag made of dung and sticks may nowadays turn out to be the altar of a forest deity, the centrepiece of a spa salon's lounge area and a showpiece at an art exhibition. This handsome fellow is the work of Ho Gui, an art collective that calls

NB! · Art · Observations · People

“Men liked to put me down as the best woman painter. I think I'm one of the best painters”

“Men liked to put me down as the best woman painter. I think I'm one of the best painters,” said Georgia O'Keeffe. Self-assurance was never something the old girl (1887-1986) was short of.

Art · Saint Petersburg · Humour

The VNEGR Mark on Leningrad Porcelain Factory Wares and What It Meant

What do you mean, VNEGR? What year do you think this is? VNEGR was a mark of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory that designated items made outside the 15 groups adopted in production, that is, the factory's division by complexity of work and artistic value. As a rule, pieces

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · People

Works by Kyiv artist Nelli Isupova at the Rituals exhibition in Moscow

Several years ago Vogue Ukraine ran a piece on the celebrated Kyiv artist Nelli Isupova. The vivid, instantly recognisable works of this woman, who became one of the centres of cultural life in the Ukrainian capital and stood at the origins of the artistic destiny of Andriivsky Descent, can at

Close-up painted portrait of an elderly woman with white curled hair, a diamond crown and blue clothing, in expressive brushstrokes.

NB! · Art · London · Monarchies · Observations

Portrait of Elizabeth II by Lucian Freud from the early 2000s

Elizabeth II through the eyes of Lucian Freud, 2000–2001. Can such a dreadful portrait really please anyone?

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Nature

In the winter of 2012 the fountain by Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, on Place des Terreaux in the centre of French Lyon froze most picturesquely

NB! · Architecture · Art · Museums

The Yellow Drawing Room in Claude Monet's House

Coming Up · Art · People

René Block, an 80-year-old German gallerist and collector, appointed curator of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2022

René Block, an 80-year-old German gallerist and collector, has been appointed curator of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2022. Block opened his first exhibition 58 years ago and was in his day the youngest gallerist in Germany, and it is particularly gratifying that even now

Art · Observations · Pop Culture

Ulyana Sergeyenko's 1920s-style menswear line echoes Stepanova and Popova

Ulyana Sergeyenko has for the first time presented a full menswear line as well. The declared style of the 1920s is genuinely maintained, and one can make out allusions to the period in the work of Varvara Stepanova, Rodchenko and Lyubov Popova, grouped around the journal "LEF", when

Detail of a painting showing the torso of a nude man and white drapery, with the face only partly visible.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Orestes in Bouguereau's painting, cropped to exclude the Furies pursuing him

I rather wanted to rescue Orestes, pursued by the Furies, from his importunate company. Really, without these charming ladies Bouguereau's painting is far better