Creativity for the Mentally Ill: A Book That Changed History
Sometimes you can hear such a statement that in order to create a masterpiece, you must be either a genius or a madman. Tarragon - the hero of the play…

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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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High Renaissance Titans: Who They Are and What Their Contribution to Art History
The Renaissance refers to the rediscovery of ideals from classical antiquity. Artists no longer thought about the art of antiquity. Now they had the tools, technology, knowledge and confidence to…

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three guys

How the primitive paintings of Grandma Moses influenced the course of the Cold War

Having crossed the age limit for 60 years, many no longer expect any fateful changes from life and quietly live out their lives. However, history knows many cases when older people achieved tremendous success at a very respectable age. Most often this happened when they took up brushes and paints. So, one of the most popular artists of America in the mid-twentieth century – Grandmother Moses, who first painted at 76, had a stunning world-wide fame as a painter for her 100th birthday and was drawn into the intrigues of American propaganda.

Grandmother Moses (1860-1961), whose real name is Anna Mary Moses, nee Robertson, is a well-known American amateur artist, one of the most famous representatives of primitivism in the history of painting in the United States. The farmer’s wife and mother of 10 children, five of whom died before reaching the age of one, became famous when she was over eighty. Continue reading

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 landfill, and their names were vilified by newfangled critics and art historians of a new formation. From the Soviet period, the legacy of only a few artists remained untouched, among which the name of Helium Korzhev, who had an amazing gift of vision and was able to masterfully convey in one gesture, in the expression on his face, what the whole generation was thinking.

A bit about the artist

Helium – in translation the God of the Sun. His parents wanted to name their son Tractor, but since he was born in a sultry summer, he was named Helios. And if more officially, then Heliy Korzhev is a Soviet painter, teacher, professor, a bright representative of the “severe style”. As well as an academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, a national artist, a laureate of several State Prizes. Continue reading

The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius

As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old days, plots were taken from legends, myths, biblical stories, the same theme was revealed by painters in different variations and several times. And today I would like to recall one of such legendary stories that laid the foundation for the works of many eminent masters of European painting. This heart-rending plot did not pass by the famous Dutchman Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn.
And the story, which occupied all the thoughts of the artist, was about the pious Roman Lucretia, the beloved heroine of the Renaissance and Baroque artists, who tragically passed away, but tried to save her honor. Continue reading

As in the Sistine Chapel, the shame was also painted over other cases of strange censorship in the history of art
Censorship is sometimes unpredictable. For example, Facebook has been seen more than once in censorship scandals ... naked antique sculptures, once during an advertising campaign for an international exhibition of…

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Other worlds in pastel-candy paintings with mysterious subjects
Syd Bee is an artist from Seattle whose work seems to have been torn straight from the world of dreams. Bee uses rich, pink tones in many of his works,…

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The tragedy of the author of the most famous portrait of Chekhov: How he lost his family and paintings, and why he got to Solovki Osip Braz
Over several centuries of development, Russian culture has presented the world with a galaxy of brilliant painters, whose works are included in the world treasury of fine art. Among them…

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