Almaty · Art · Cinema · Observations · People
There is a film called “Sergei Kalmykov: A Man Visible from the Stars”. It is about an incredible Soviet artist and mystic who lived in Alma-Ata. Kalmykov moved to Kazakhstan in the late 1930s, when storm clouds began to gather over the circle of mystics, and in Alma-Ata
Art · Books · Museums · Rome
Pliny the Elder waxes enthusiastic about a dog licking its wound in the temple of Juno on the Capitol:. "This art attained a perfection incredible in a man, and with it a boldness to match. … Our generation saw on the Capitol, before it burned down so recently, … a dog
Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
An exceedingly rich child in a cradle, a painting by the early Baroque Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana. 1583. That the cradle resembles a tomb has its reverse side: Jesus in the sepulchre, at this time and earlier, is sometimes depicted as if lying in a bed. As for the sumptuous
Faith · Art · People
Anna Katharina Emmerich, Catholic Blessed. Portrait by Gabriel von Max. On the strength of the Blessed Anna Katharina's records of her visions, a site was found where the house of the Mother of God is believed to have stood. Raised in a poor family, from childhood Anna Katharina
Art · Heritage · Mores · People
Remember the grannies and grandpas who build marvellous gardens in their yards and front gardens, with ladybirds, swans made of tyres, towers of plastic bottle tops, toys, figurines, waterfalls and other magic? People usually pass such creations by with, at best, an indulgent smile and a moment's attention.
NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · People
Grandma Tessie Prisbrey and her bottle village: 16 monumental structures of glass, cement and plastic fished out of the rubbish. Simi Valley, California, USA.
NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Humour
The four elements: water, fire, earth, air. Northern France, around 1180. Not quite as they are shown in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but still
Architecture · Art · Moscow · Heritage
Not exactly a treasure, one might say, but still a fairly rare mosaic of a longship and the Kremlin on an ordinary prefab block in Moscow at 22 Yablochkova Street. The building is being demolished under the renovation programme, while activists from among the residents of the Butyrsky district are
NB! · Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
NB! · Art · Books · Museums · People
Inkwell "Pushkin at Work". 1936, Lomonosov Porcelain Factory
Art · Observations · Humour
The Sculptor, 1964. By the American realist painter John Koch (1909-1978). When the model quite literally gives off fire: having taken the measurements of his nude sitter, the master has nothing left to do but light a cigarette with shaking hands, never letting go of the callipers. I simply
NB! · Art · Observations