Fine Art

Ed van der Elsken

Even though his cameras were ever-present, van der Elsken’s photos didn’t contain the least tinge of solipsism. It didn’t explore his personal identity - he was far more concerned with using his camera for documenting the social culture around him, especially the counterculture. His lenses captured the reckless, drug-taking bohemians in postwar Paris, the gruesome slaughter of hunted elephants in Africa, the demolition of Amsterdam’s looted and destroyed Jewish Quarter, segregation in South Africa under apartheid, jazz musicians onstage, and all forms of love - gender-bending, interracial and otherwise. He’s most famous for pictures shot in grainy, high-contrast black and white.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

Arguably the most psychologically compelling painting by John Singer Sargent.

Avant Garde

Avant Garde produced only 16 issues between January 1968 and July 1971. But it left its mark, influencing tastemakers within the arts world. Avant Garde is partly remembered for its radical politics and embrace of erotic content.

Alte Pinakothek

Alte Pinakothek. It is one of the oldest galleries of the world housing one of the most famous art museums for the old masters.

The Cottingley Fairies

The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins living in Cottingley, near Bradford in England, depicting the two in various activities with supposed fairies. In 1917, when the first two photos were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 10. In 1981 both women admitted that the photos were faked using cardboard cutouts. CGI has come a long way.

Adolf Wölfli

Adolf Wölfli was a Swiss outsider artist. He was abused both physically and sexually as a child, and was orphaned at the age of 10. He thereafter grew up in a series of state-run foster homes. He was later convicted of attempted child molestation, for which he served prison time. After being freed, he was re-arrested for a similar offense and in 1895 was admitted to the Waldau Clinic, a psychiatric hospital in Bern where he spent the rest of his adult life. He was very disturbed and sometimes violent on admission, leading to him being kept in isolation for his early time at hospital. He suffered from psychosis, which led to intense hallucinations.

Earl Cunningham

Earl Cunningham American folk artist. Cunnigham was a self-taught artist who painted mostly landscapes. He used vivid colors, flat perspective, and a few recurrent themes. He added incongruous details, such as flamingos in Maine and Viking ships in Florida, to his work.

Erté

Erté was a Russian-born French artist and designer.

Guy Debord’s Kriegspiel

In January 1977, the French Situationist Guy Debord founded the company Strategic and Historical Games. This company had an immediate goal: to produce a game of war that Debord had already designed in his head years before. Inspired by the military theory of Carl von Clausewitz and the European campaigns of Napoleon, Debord's game is a chess-variant played by two opposing players on a game board of 500 squares arranged in rows of 20 by 25 squares.

Gary LeMaster

Gary LeMaster is a sculptor of eggshells.

Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime