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Category / Art & Design Awesomeness

Before & After Pin-Up Models Back in the Day without Photoshop

Ever wonder why today’s fashion campaigns are a product of lengthy Photoshopping sessions? What kind of touch-ups did the models get before Adobe came along and changed our world forever? As these pin-up before & afters show, the models literally became cartoons of their former selves…

Centuries Ago, They were Facetuning, Filtering and Catfishing Too

In 1539, Anne of Cleves met her hot-tempered fiancé, King Henry VIII, for the very first time – and to say it was awkward might be one of the biggest understatements in courtship history. Of course the union was politically calculated, but a flustered Henry proceeded to tank the marriage after claiming she looked nothing like her…

So How Did a Company Selling Rubber Tires Become the World’s Authority on Restaurants?

It actually makes a lot of sense. It’s also genius marketing. But really, how did the world’s most talented chefs and esteemed restaurants and come to be so concerned with the approval (and stars) of a company that sold rubber tires? Let’s go back to the very first issue that Michelin published in 1900. At that time…

Girl in Bath Eating Food

I had often seen the above image floating around on the internet on various Tumblrs and always mistaken it for a photograph. But the artist behind these oil paintings is American realist painter, Lee Price. I suppose you could look at these works and say they’re a little sad, but I prefer to think of them…

She’s the Overlooked Female Caravaggio

The story has everything a good drama needs: religion, sex, and murder. Judith was a beautiful young widow who saved Israel when the town of Bethulia was under siege by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar. After a long prayer, she entered the Assyrian camp with her maid and gained the trust of the general Holofernes. She…

Vintage Japanese Advertising Could Sell Us Anything

The foamiest men’s shampoo to make bath-time oodles more fun? The latest must-have make-up for your back? Whatever they were selling, we would’ve been buying. If you were in post-WWII Japan, your eyeballs had the luck of watching the advertising world grow brighter, hipper, and (especially in the ’80s) weirder. From the surreal visuals and zany…

The Secret Lives of Fashion Mannequins

For a brief moment in the 1930s, one of the most famous celebrities of the day was a 100-pound mannequin named Cynthia. She had box seats at the Metropolitan Opera, received freebies from Tiffany and Cartier, graced the cover of Life magazine and was even invited to the wedding of Edward V111 and Wallis Simpson.…

An Off-the-Curriculum Introduction to BDSM & Fetish Art History

A little slap and tickle – kinky or otherwise – has been good medicine for us down the ages. Public consumption of the practice of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism) really came into its own during a ‘golden age’ of fetish art in the mid 20th century. Fetish art has…

What was the Deal with Marcel Duchamp and Chess?

It’s a question we asked ourselves recently in a Messy Nessy editorial meeting after finding yet another photograph of the 20th century artist playing chess in some unusual, avant-garde manner. Discovering a person’s hobby can be so deliciously voyeuristic. It’s a window into the way they switch-off from the world, and one made all the…

A Pilgrimage to the Ancient Penis Monastery

Deep in the Himalayas you’ll find Bhutan, an ancient kingdom with an equally ancient Buddhist monastery that is bound to make you blush. It’s called Chimi Lhakhang, and it’s a temple dedicated to fertility and the “sacred phallus.” Emphasis on the phallus. A carved “welcome” sign invites Western visitors to explore the monastery and its surrounding village,…

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