Coming Up · Archive · Art · Museums · Observations
An exhibition called "Beyond the Hundred-and-First Kilometre. Nonconformists in Tarusa" has opened in Tarusa, marking the 65th anniversary of the "first free exhibition" of unofficial artists, held here in 1961 in the premises of the town club. That was a year before the Manege
Art · Cinema · New York · Society
A documentary about America's last two staff art critics has been released: House of Criticism, directed by Alison Chernick. The film tells the story of the lives of Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz. Smith joined The New York Times in 1986 on a part-time basis; in 2011
Art · London · Museums
Souvenirs Without Nostalgia. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has given three works by the artist to the Artist Rooms collection, which is jointly managed by the London-based Tate group and National Galleries Scotland. Rauschenberg is known above all for his «Combines» of the post-war years, but all three donated
Art · Observations · Society
In Melbourne, a giant graffito of a bird has split the city into two camps. The artist who painted a cartoon bird on the pier of a bridge has been arrested. But thousands of people have come out in support of at least his graffito and have asked the authorities
Coming Up · Art · Books · Museums · Rome
At the end of September the Vatican Apostolic Library will open AQVA, an exhibition from its new cycle "Catastrophe and Miracle". The cycle is based on Gaetano Volpi's treatise "On the Passion for Books" of 1756, which lists five threats to the book: water,
Art · Monarchies · Ethnography
Queen Matilda Working on the Bayeux Tapestry, Alfred Guillard, 1848. The painting draws on the legend that attributes the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the conquest of England, to Matilda, Duchess of Normandy and Queen of England, wife of William the Conqueror. Such romantic vignettes belong to the
Art · Museums · Observations · People
One of the strongest impressions of this year: the series of Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Bellini painted this subject more than eighty times in the course of his life, so there is no better material for watching his mastery develop. The Madonnas
Art · London · Monarchies · Museums · Humour
The sinister portrait of Charles III by Jonathan Yeo, unveiled in 2024, in which the king's figure drowned in the crimson haze of the underworld, has made it into Buckingham Palace after all. The Royal Collection has accepted as a gift a large preparatory study for that portrait,
Art · Society · Humour
In Baltimore, the pedestal that has stood empty for exactly six years, ever since the monument to Columbus was removed from it, has finally acquired a new occupant. True, this Renaissance lasted only a few minutes, and the self-proclaimed David was led away by the police. This time, dropped
Art · London · Society
Since April 2022, Britain has banned the export of luxury goods worth more than £250 to Russia, art included. Breaking the ban is a criminal offence and may cost up to six months in prison. And so, last November, the Crown Prosecution Service brought a charge against the Hauser &
Archive · Art · Mores · Paris · Humour
Drawing by Alfred Grévin (1827-1892) for the cover of issue 281 of the Petit Journal pour Rire. A simple design for a summer hall for gentlemen, submitted to the gentlemen among the theatre directors, or even to the gentlemen of the commission for the creation of a new opera
Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations · Heritage
A couple of days ago I posted a reel about the sad, dilapidated state of the wonderful openwork cast-iron Demidov fence in front of the Pedagogical Library in Bolshoy Tolmachyovsky Lane, and literally today word came that restoration work has begun on the spot. I do not yet know