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Yet Another Cringeworthy Work by Maurizio Cattelan, Entitled La Nona Ora, Shows Pope John Paul II Felled by a Meteorite
Architecture · Art · Reportage · Rome
You asked for more architecture and interiors, so I went to the newest and most fashionable hotel in Rome: Palazzo Talìa, opened in 2024, whose decoration was the work of Studio Luca Guadagnino, of that very same…
Guadagnino has indeed proved a remarkable decorator. The hotel and its bar occupy a former school built in the 16th century, and nearly everything you see in the interior was made to order for this project. The carpet patterns were designed by the Hermès illustrator Nigel Peake, ceramicists from Sicily
Art · Monarchies · Museums · Saint Petersburg
The "Sleeping Shepherd Boy" Vase, with Ornamental Details Featuring Balalaika and Sheaf Motifs, Presented to Empress Maria Alexandrovna, Wife of Alexander II, for Christmas 1858
After the painted original by Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov. Russia, Saint Petersburg, Imperial Porcelain Factory. Porcelain, overglaze painting, gilding; bronze, chasing. Ostankino and Kuskovo Museum-Reserve. Photo from the exhibition "The Unknown Shchukin" at the Pushkin Museum
Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums
Matisse's Watercolour Sketch for The Red Studio at the Unknown Shchukin Exhibition
Beside Matisse's "Pink Studio" at the Pushkin Museum's new exhibition "The Unknown Shchukin" hangs a watercolour sketch of the painting "The Red Studio", which he enclosed in a letter to Shchukin, counting on the collector's support. Shchukin could
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
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
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
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
Art
The most expensive auction sale of a Surrealist painting: "The Empire of Light" (1954) by René Magritte
The most expensive auction sale of a Surrealist painting: "The Empire of Light" (1954) by René Magritte. The sum of $121 million is also the highest price ever paid for a Magritte. The artist's previous record stood at $79 million; this time, at the Christie'