The East · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · People

Nataliya Turnova’s exhibition “Unceremonial Portrait” at the Multimedia Art Museum

Natalia Turnova at the Multimedia Art Museum. Let us begin by recalling the artist's biography, which I gleaned from some interview or other. A childhood in Kabul and in Myanmar. You see now where those bright, Eastern monochromes and colour combinations come from? She traced her first artistic

NB! · Art · People

Igor Shelkovsky's "Proverbs"

NB! · Archive · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Catherine Deneuve, aged 22

Observations · People

"I am a branch in the road, barring the way to evil"

Vladimir Yakovlev

Faith · Observations · Society · People · Rome

Pope Francis shows signs of improvement, but prognosis remains cautious on the thirteenth day of hospitalisation

This is how Pope Francis looked at the general audience in the Vatican on 12 February 2025, two days before his hospitalisation. Although the Pope's condition is reported to be showing signs of improvement, Vatican officials have stressed that "the prognosis remains guarded", as his hospitalisation

Black and white photograph of a man in a suit and polka dot tie holding a cigarette, wearing an ancient helmet that covers his face.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · People

Archaeologist Manuel Esteve in a Corinthian helmet he discovered, 1938

The Spanish archaeologist Manuel Esteve poses in a Corinthian helmet he has discovered. 1938

NB! · Archive · Faith · People

Pope Francis before his pontificate

Art · People

A Knitted Doily in Carrara Marble

The Greek sculptor Argyris Rallias, born in 1993. We shall not compare him with the masterpieces of the past, but by the standards of our own times it looks rather good

NB! · Archive · Books · People

From the Memoirs of Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam

NB! · Faith · Society · People · Rome

Pope Francis, 88, reported to be in critical condition in a Rome hospital

Archive · Books · Science · People

One of the most unusual manuscripts submitted for the new season of the Hypertext Prize is a work by the writer and science journalist Sergei Korostelev, "Earth — Venus: The Two Lives of Leonid Xanfomalidi"

It is a large-scale biography of the distinguished Russian astronomer and space researcher Leonid Vasilyevich Xanfomalidi (1932–2019). A Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, he led experiments on the Soviet automatic stations that explored Mars, Venus and Halley's Comet. Venus played a special part in Xanfomalidi&

Observations · Mores · People · Humour

Sarah Bernhardt at Thirty, in Her Coffin

She is not dead. Merely asleep. Or rather, posing for a photograph in the character of a woman lying in a coffin. She died, after all, at 78. Until then she simply liked to lie in a coffin. And she had one installed at home as a bed. A fool