Art

Loose Lips Sink Ships: Nina Ananiashvili Loses New Job One Week After She Announced It

Last week the former prima ballerina of the Bolshoi, ABT, and the Houston Ballet told the Georgian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that she had accepted the directorship of the ballet company at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater in Russia’s third-largest city. However, she wasn’t even scheduled to meet the dancers until late January, and telling the press about the job before telling her new colleagues did not go down well. Her contract has been terminated. – Georgia ...
Tags: Art, Russia, Georgia, Dance, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, Houston Ballet, Nina Ananiashvili, 01.13.21, Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater

Ancient Buildings At Palmyra, Destroyed By ISIS, May Really Get Rebuilt

“The ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, which was severely damaged by ISIS militants in 2015, appears to be heading toward reconstruction. In November, a memorandum of understanding on rebuilding the city’s Triumphal Arch was signed between Syria’s Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums and Russia’s Stone Industry Association, which is based in Yekaterinburg.” – The Art Newspaper
Tags: Art, Isis, Russia, Syria, Palmyra, Visual, Yekaterinburg, 01.11.21, Directorate General of Antiquities, Stone Industry Association

Dances With Death: In Russia, Ballet Continues, Pandemic Be Damned

As colleagues and fans in other countries look on with either envy or incredulity, ballet dancers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities keep coming to the theater, rehearsing, and performing. Outbreaks happen regularly within companies and dancers have to quarantine, but onward they go. – Gramilano (Milan)
Tags: Art, Russia, Dance, Moscow St Petersburg, 12.19.20

Why Is Napoleon’s Hand Always in His Waistcoat?: The Origins of This Distinctive Pose Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTA8j5wSTx4 If the name of Napoleon Bonaparte should come up in a game of charades, we all know what to do: stand up with one foot in front of the other, stick a hand into our shirt, and consider the round won. Yet the recognition of this pose as distinctively Napoleonic may not be as wide as we assume, or so Coleman Lowndes discovered in the research for the video above, “Napoleon’s Missing Hand, Explained.” Asked to act out the image of Napoleon, not all...
Tags: Google, Art, Facebook, College, Wikipedia, Russia, History, Ted, David, Bill Murray, Napoleon Bonaparte, Bill, Vox, Seoul, Charlie Chaplin, Napoleon

Awards Season Has Begun, And In LA, Steve McQueen Won Best Film For His A Five-Film Anthology

The LA Film Critics Association also awarded Best Director to Chloe Zhao for Nomadland with Frances McDormand, and Russia’s stark post-WWII tale Beanpole won Best Foreign Film. The rest of the winners – and it’s an interesting list – are at the link. – Los Angeles Times
Tags: Art, Media, Russia, Los Angeles, Frances Mcdormand, Steve McQueen, LA Film Critics Association, Chloe Zhao, Nomadland, 12.20.20

Hotels fit for a KGB officer: Soviet cities in the twilight - in pictures

Many modernist buildings from the Soviet period are being destroyed, but Russian photographer Arseniy Kotov hopes to preserve their memory with these shots of sloping cinemas and rooms under surveillance Continue reading...
Tags: Art, Europe, Books, Photography, Russia, World news, Culture, Architecture, Art and design, Communism, KGB, Arseniy Kotov

Russian museum director who exposed Soviets to hidden masterpieces dies at 98

Irina Antonova, head of Pushkin Museum for 52 years, brought Mona Lisa to Moscow despite cold warA longtime museum director dubbed the grande dame of the Russian art world has died at 98, prompting an outpouring of grief and admiration for the woman who brought the Mona Lisa to Moscow and returned masterpieces hidden for decades from the Soviet public to her museum’s exhibition halls.Irina Antonova, whose work at the Pushkin Museum began under Joseph Stalin and ended under Vladimir Putin, died o...
Tags: Art, Vladimir Putin, Russia, World news, Art and design, Moscow, Joseph Stalin, Mona Lisa, Pushkin Museum, Coronavirus, Irina Antonova

How Henry Ford’s Production Model Shaped Our Politics

https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-politics/justin-h-vassallo-world-henry-ford-madeHenry Ford would likely find his relevance to the current crisis of globalization a testament to his “producerist” philosophy. But as historian Stefan J. Link writes in his new book, Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order, Ford’s peculiar ideals “projected a political (and moral) economy that hardly anticipated the American consumer modernity that eme...
Tags: Art, Germany, Russia, Ideas, Ford, Henry Ford, 10.14.20, Stefan J Link

A Book Finds A New Audience In The Last Place On Earth It Hadn’t Gone Before

John Hersey’s Hiroshima, first a 30,000-word article in The New Yorker, became a book almost immediately, and has sold millions of copies in many different languages since. But “one of the few places Hiroshima did not appear in the year after its initial publication was Russia. That changed this past August.” – The New York Times
Tags: Art, Russia, Words, Hiroshima, John Hersey, 10.12.20

1960s Soviet tear-off calendars are a treasure trove of graphic design

In the latest issue of my newsletter, The Magnet (subscribe here!) I took a closer look at my grandmother's 1960s Soviet tear-off calendars. They are loaded with great line illustrations!
Tags: Post, Design, News, Russia

Is Putin’s Plan To Build Cultural Centers All Over Russia About To Fall Apart?

“Russian president Vladimir Putin’s 120bn ruble ($1.6bn) project to build a string of regional cultural centres with branches of leading federal museums and theatres has come under fire after … two dozen former staff members of the National Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is building the centres with funding from Russian state oil and gas profits, said that 120 contracts had been terminated in June with no notice, no severance pay and four months of salary arrears.” – The Art Newspaper
Tags: Art, Putin, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Issues, 09.28.20, National Cultural Heritage Foundation

Why A Russian Billionaire Is Buying Up Unwanted Confederate Statues

“If the monuments are going to be thrown out, chucked away, we’re happy to buy them and dismantle them and put them together back in Russia for future generations to enjoy and to appreciate. The idea is preserving those things for history. History has two sides of it always. Bad or good, it’s a piece of art.” – Washington Post
Tags: Art, Russia, Visual, 09.22.20

This Woman Recreates One Famous Classic Painting a Day for a Year, Brings Progress to Another Level

Ilya Repin “Princess Sofia Alekseyevna” (1879) Liza Yukhnyova from Saint Petersburg, Russia, perfectly gets into characters of famous masterpieces. Her mastery does not look like entertainment but claims to be called art. According to an artist: “I really love art, admiring beauty and talent. I want to actualize great painting from different cultural traditions to show people that it is much... Source
Tags: Art, Photography, Design, Russia, Woman, Paintings, Recreate, Classic, Saint Petersburg Russia, Ilya Repin, Sofia Alekseyevna, Liza Yukhnyova

Four Girls Have Been Taking Their Group Photos For 7 Years

Four Russian girls, beginning with 2012, have been making their group photos and got them framed. One of them published the photos recently and received a lot of comments from other users. They have been friends since childhood. The second one is dated 2013. 2014 2015 2016 – the previous photo is in their hands. This photo, 2017, was taken on the wedding day of one of the girls. Source
Tags: Photography, Design, Russia, Photo, Girls, Group, Series

Arctic wildfires are emitting 35% more carbon compared to 2019

Wildfires are releasing more carbon emissions in the first eight months of 2020 than they did in all of 2019. According to a recent report by the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, carbon emissions in the Arctic have surpassed last year’s emissions by 35%. The latest data shows that about 245 megatonnes of CO2 have been released in 2020 so far. This is a far higher figure than the entirety of last year, when 181 megatonnes of CO2 were released as a result of wildfires. The data furth...
Tags: Design, Russia, Eu, Arctic, Siberia, Wildfire, Air, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, Mark Parrington, Aerial Forest Protection Service

Take Immersive Virtual Tours of the World’s Great Museums: The Louvre, Hermitage, Van Gogh Museum & Much More

Can you remember when you last visited a museum? Even if you didn't much care for them before the time of the coronavirus, you're probably beginning to miss them right about now. At least the internet technology that has kept our communication open and our entertainment flowing — and, regrettably for some, kept our work meetings regular — has also made it possible to experience art institutions through our screens. Here on Open Culture we've previously featured many such online art s...
Tags: Google, Art, Facebook, Europe, Japan, London, College, Mexico, France, Russia, Spain, Museums, Italy, Netherlands, Vatican, Salvador Dalí

Norway oil drilling expands to Svalbard

Norway is expanding oil drilling operations farther north into the Arctic. Environmentalists are concerned about the fragile Arctic ecosystem, and campaigners worry relations with Russia will deteriorate as Norway pushes the limits of the Svalbard treaty. The Svalbard archipelago is northwest of Norway, east of Greenland and south of the North Pole. In addition to the 2,667 people who lived in Svalbard as of 2016, polar bears, Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes make their home in the remote and ...
Tags: Design, Russia, Paris, Arctic, Norway, Greenland, Ucl, Svalbard, Trump, Ilan Kelman, Kelman, Agder University, WWF Greenpeace, Earth Norway

A Historical Disinclination To Theatre

One of the key facets of Jonas Barish’s argument is that, throughout history and across cultures, theatrical activity has almost always been met by vociferous opposition. From ancient Greece, when Plato wrote that acting and the theatre would be excluded from his ideal state, to the Soviet era in Russia, when strict governmental regulation dictated what type of work theatre artists were permitted to create, theatre has been subject to both philosophical criticism and material censorship. – Howl...
Tags: Art, Greece, Russia, Theatre, Plato, 08.20.20, Jonas Barish

What’s The Most Popular Book In Russian Prisons? Not ‘Crime And ‘Punishment’

No, Dostoevsky’s novel is only the second-most popular title among inmates there; Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is in the top spot, with Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo at number three. The data was released by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service as part of a nationwide government program to encourage reading called “Books Are Your Friends.” – The Moscow Times
Tags: Art, Russia, Moscow, Words, Dostoevsky, Monte Cristo, Dumas, Bulgakov, Federal Penitentiary Service, 07.30.20

That Statue Of Teddy Roosevelt That’s Coming Down In New York? This Russian Collector Will Buy It

Andrei Filatov, a rail transport and investment magnate (who is also chairman of the Chess Federation of Russia), has offered to purchase the long-controversial statue in front of the American Museum of Natural History that depicts Theodore Roosevelt on horseback flanked by half-naked American Indian and African men on foot. He’d made a similar offer for a statue of Alexander Baranov, the Russian colonial governor of Alaska, in Sitka that activists want relocated. – The Art Newspaper
Tags: Art, New York, Russia, Alaska, American Museum of Natural History, Visual, Theodore Roosevelt, Sitka, Chess Federation, 07.01.20, Andrei Filatov, Alexander Baranov

Kirill Serebrennikov Gets Three-Year Suspended Sentence In Controversial Embezzlement Case

“[The decision is] a surprise legal victory in a fraud case his supporters say was politically motivated and a test of artistic freedom in Russia. Suspended sentences are widely seen as the lightest punishment in Russia’s legal system, which rarely issues not-guilty verdicts. The sentencing was met with applause by the hundreds of supporters gathered outside.” – The Moscow Times
Tags: Art, Russia, People, Moscow, Kirill Serebrennikov, 06.26.20

Artificial Intelligence Brings to Life Figures from 7 Famous Paintings: The Mona Lisa, Birth of Venus & More

Denis Shiryaev is an AI wizard who has liberally applied his magic to old film—upscaling, colorizing, and otherwise modernizing scenes from Victorian England, late Tsarist Russia, and Belle Époque Paris. He trained machines to restore the earliest known motion picture, 1888’s Roundhay Garden Scene and one of the most mythologized works of early cinema, the Lumière Brothers 50-second Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station. Shiryaev’s casual distribution of these efforts on YouTube can ma...
Tags: Google, Art, England, Technology, College, Russia, Software, Creativity, Nvidia, Rembrandt, Mona Lisa, Hummingbird, Victorian England, Grant Wood, Facebook Twitter, Leonardo

Rebuilding An Indigenous Dance Culture Post-Soviet

This is part of the traditional dance of the Mari, the region’s indigenous nation. Its sudden intrusion into an otherwise classical production is no coincidence. It is part of an experiment that seeks to tackle the some of the most crucial challenges facing the post-Soviet provincial stage: how to use Soviet traditions to create art for a new Russia, while still standing on par with global artistic developments. – Calvert Journal
Tags: Art, Russia, Dance, 06.10.20

Lockdown Doesn’t Work For Every Writer, But Boy, Did It Ever Work For Pushkin

Quarantined during a cholera epidemic 190 years ago, the poet excelled. “Pushkin, who would never be allowed to travel outside Russia and was now stranded in the countryside amid ‘rain, snow and mud up to your knees,’ leapt across historical epochs, countries and genres—from the medieval French tower in ‘The Miserly Knight’ to Vienna in ‘Mozart and Salieri.’ ‘The Stone Guest’ swept from the gates of Madrid to the balcony of one of Don Juan’s lovers.” And he finished Eugene Onegin to boot. – The...
Tags: Art, Russia, Vienna, Words, Madrid, Mozart, Don Juan, Eugene Onegin, Pushkin, Salieri, 06.04.20

In Russia, Independent Booksellers Begin Championing Neglected Writers

“The most widely-read books are translated foreign bestsellers. There is little space for Russian talent — and if you want to be one of the chosen few to secure a book deal, that means satisfying big publishers’ often conservative tastes. … Change, however, is already coming — driven by a new wave of young literary activists and independent startups challenging the status quo. Many are led by young women, on offshoot from Russia’s growing feminist movement. They search for the forgotten Russian...
Tags: Art, Russia, Words, 05.29.20

An Artist’s Journey From Soviet Russia to the USA with Zhenya Gershman

An intriguing and inspiring interview with Soviet Russian born artist and entrepreneur, Zhenya Gershman.  In the video interview below, Zhenya generously shares how she quickly moved from teaching in person at Z Art Academy to teaching with Zoom online – and now her business is booming more than ever! Born in Moscow, Russia (when it was Soviet Russia) Zhenya held her 1st solo exhibition in St. Petersburg at age 14. She moved to the USA and was the youngest student to be admitted to Otis Art I...
Tags: Art, Usa, Russia, Al Pacino, St Petersburg, Soviet Russia, Fine Art Tips, Art Lessons, Zac Brown, Moscow Russia, Art Academy, Otis Art Institute, Zhenya, Russian Art, Art Workshop, Teaching Online

Persevering As An Artist – From Insecure Art Student to Master Painter

Recently, I had a lively discussion with master painter Susan Lyon. Susan opened up and revealed her evolution from an insecure art student to a masterful painter! Her story is truly inspiring. In the video below, Susan also shares her insights on getting started on Patreon. Patreon is an online membership platform that makes it easy for creatives to get paid. For creators, Patreon is a way to get paid for creating the things you’re already creating (paintings, tutorials, webcomics, videos,...
Tags: Art, Russia, Georgia, Chicago, Pbs, North Carolina, Patreon, Artist Interview, Art Business, Fine Art Tips, Inspiration & Motivation, Richard Schmid, Susan, Keefe, Oak Park Illinois, Scott Burdick

The Best Art Parodies Seem To Have Started In Russia, And Now They’re Everywhere

A Facebook group started in Moscow now has tens of thousands of members worldwide, making art of the mundanities of lockdown. “They have been posting their work at a clip of more than 1,000 items a day, each time attaching their own photo alongside an image of the original art. They have corralled family members, pets and household items to channel the iconic and, as the Munchs and Kahlos pile up, so do the obscure — a flexible air-conditioning duct; a collage of plastic forks; a ring of strung...
Tags: Art, Facebook, Russia, Moscow, Visual, 04.25.20, Kahlos

Bored Russians Posted Silly Art Parodies. The World Has Joined In.

Frozen dumplings as skulls and A/C ducts as fashion accessories. A Facebook group for art re-enactors has gained 540,000 followers across the locked-down globe.
Tags: Art, Facebook, News, Russia, Social Media, Connecticut, Kazakhstan, Picasso, Facebook Inc, Pablo, Frida, Kahlo, Kandinsky, Jerusalem (Israel, Wassily, Almaty (Kazakhstan

How’s The Bolshoi Handling The Epidemic And Shutdown? Nervously

In an extensive Q&A, Bolshoi general director Vladimir Urin talks about how the dancers, singers and instrumentalists are and aren’t continuing to get paid, how everyone is trying to stay in shape, trying to plan for a very uncertain future, what the Bolshoi’s (and the arts’) relationship with audiences will be (including the prices they’ll be willing to pay) post-COVID, and the best- and worst-case scenarios for Russia’s flagship ballet/opera house (“if we don’t open in September, it could go ...
Tags: Art, Russia, Moscow, Issues, Vladimir Urin, 04.10.20