Two brides for one groom: The riddle of a picturesque plot about the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine
The American artist Marilyn Sunderland covers her pumpkin sculptures with the plexus of leaves, flowers and berries, figures of fantastic fish, birds and butterflies, turning a regular vegetable grown in…

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Why did the famous socialist realist Heliy Korzhev begin to write mutant-turliks and paintings on biblical motifs
In recent years, in the world of art, interest in the work of Soviet artists has revived. And there was a time when their work was written off to a…

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"The Invisible Artist", which creates paintings on people, like on canvases
Since today many acts of civil protest in China remain strictly prohibited, a well-known Chinese artist-photographer, master of the original creative camouflage of people, Liu Bolin invented a unique technique…

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reproductions

How Peter Konchalovsky managed to avoid repression and why the artist was called the Soviet Cezanne

Not many painters who disobeyed the socialist regime in times of bloody repression managed to escape punishment. Today I would like to recall the name of one of them – Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky. In those terrible years, the artist managed to remain a “pure” painter who avoided the embodiment of socialist reality and portraits of its leaders in his creations. Moreover, to take as a basis for his work the direction of the hostile Western art, which is why he was named in his time – the Soviet Cezanne.

It should be noted that the great merit of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People’s Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, was that Pyotr Petrovich was allowed to create freely, despite the attacks of critics who longed for the proletarian coup and the ecstasy of socialist work in the artist’s works. Anatoly Vasilievich convinced the guardians of the dogmas of socialist realism that Konchalovsky in his modern day “sings the poetry of our everyday life” and, apparently, the People’s Commissar did quite well. Continue reading

The riddle and curse of the “Crying Boy”: Why Amadio was called the devil painter

The Italian painter Bruno Amadio, who worked under the pseudonym Giovanni Bragolin, is considered to be the most dramatic and sinister artist in the history of art of the 20th century, who was called the devil painter. His name, in particular, is associated with a terrible story that terrifies many who have encountered his creation “The Crying Boy”, covered in a terrible legend, rumors and speculation.

A few words about the artist

Bruno Amadio (Giovanni Bragolin) was born in 1911 and lived a fairly long life, leaving a number of art paintings that depict crying children. Despite the fact that the artist lived in the last century, very little information has been preserved about him. After his life, there were practically no personal photos left, he never gave interviews to journalists, art historians did not write their reviews about him. It is only known that in the war years he was a member of World War II, who fought on the side of Mussolini. At the end of the war he moved to Spain, and already there he changed his real name from Bruno Amadio to Giovanni Bragolin. Later he lived and worked in Venice, was a restoration artist. Continue reading

Secret meanings of Brueghel's visual “Flemish proverbs: Reflection of the essence of man and being
Northern Renaissance Master Brueghel the Elder is a Dutch Renaissance artist and engraver known for landscapes and peasant scenes. He was sometimes called the "peasant Brueghel." He portrayed his incredible…

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Paintings of an artist who has loved one woman and one city for 60 years
It is not often that fate favors artists with benefits at the same time in all areas of life. Few people manage to walk a life and career on a…

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Unknown portrait of Da Vinci’s brush: Did the great master really write “Princess Leonardo” and whom he portrayed
It may seem that the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci has many paintings - this artist, who died five hundred years ago, is mentioned too much and too often in…

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