13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 729)

1. Cupid on the Move Works by Michelangelo Maestri, found on Gods and Foolish Grandeur. 2. The Romance of Paper “Cobwebs” Among the many works on paper in The Met’s Department of Drawings and Prints is a large collection of historic Valentines from Europe and the United States. In paper form, these tokens of love are known from…

Turn up the Volume on a Forgotten American Jazz Queen of Mid-Century Paris

Amid the fervent jazz revival that swept Paris in the years following World War II, a host of American musicians found a second home on the banks of the Seine. Paris became a cherished haven for many Black artists whose creativity often ran up against racial barriers in the United States. Although legends like Sidney…

Unicorns on the Brain: A Mother’s Journey Down the Rainbow Rabbit Hole

Unicorns have officially invaded what was once our fairly stylish Parisian living room. My nearly-three year-old daughter twirls in a fluffy unicorn costume, her laughter filling the room as she chases her brother with a bubble-blowing toy shaped like a rainbow-maned mare. How did we get here? I started wondering lately. The unicorn, once a…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 728)

1. Europe’s 19th Century Hippies Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851–1913) is regarded as the “forefather of alternative movements” and one of the most important champions of life-reform, the peace movement and naturism, which caused him to clash in the prudish society of the Empire. Diefenbach (pictured standing) was not just an artist, but a cultural rebel through…

Artist du Jour: The Little-Known Legacy of a Bohemian Bloodline

Welcome back to my virtual art gallery, where I like to highlight painters, particularly Paris-inspired artists, that I’ve never heard of. When speaking of early 20th-century art in Paris, the usual household names like Picasso, Matisse, or Modigliani often spring to mind, yet within that lively milieu, there thrived another remarkable painter that has long-evaded…

Surrealist Sisters in Paris

Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington are familiar names around here. We’ve posted about each of these women separately (familiarise yourself with Carrington here) and Fini is one of my personal favourite bohemians of the 20th century. But then I stumbled upon an old photograph which pictured them together in Paris and it stopped me in…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 727)

1. A woman submerged five sets of her fine china underwater before evacuating due to the fires in Northern California in 2018 Found on Reddit. 2. Ueckert Circus Wardrobe Collection: over 1,200 artifacts, costuming, accessories & props from American circuses dating from the 1880s Now open for researching. 3. In Sardinia, the women of Desulo…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 726)

1. Paris, 1957 A random selection of photographs found on Live Journal. 2. Manhattan NYC, 1931 This is an aerial photo of Manhattan taken circa 1931. You can see all the way from 125th Street in Harlem down to the tip of Manhattan and beyond. That tall spike 25 blocks south of Central Park is…

The Lost Art of Hollywood’s Kaleidoscopic Fever Dreams

Gather ‘round, cinema enthusiasts, because it’s time to tip our top hats to one of vintage Hollywood’s most dazzling visionaries: Busby Berkeley. A man whose name conjures up images of synchronised swimmers, overhead shots of geometric dancers, and the kind of glitzy, glittery choreography that could put a magpie into cardiac arrest. Berkeley didn’t just…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 725)

1. Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, staged in a burnt out theatre in Peru, 1999 In 1999, architect Luis Longhi transformed the fire-damaged Teatro Municipal de Lima into a unique setting for “King Lear.” Utilizing the theater’s ruins, he installed a steel ramp traversing the roofless stage, integrating the stalls and boxes to create an immersive experience…