Mademoiselle Matea

Vesa Vassileva ‘Ancient Bulgarian Chronicle’ 1978

Mineral Roof Garden in São Paulo, by Roberto Burle Marx, 1983

ARTHUR DOVE 'WILLOWS' 1940

📍MoMA, New York

Upon seeing this piece in room 509 at the MoMA, I just went completely silent. Its mystery drew me in, tore my heart, and haunted me for days to come.

Painted in 1940, whilst Arthur Dove was recovering from a heart attack, the alluring sight of the dancing willow trees in his Long Island home captures something more than just a landscape. The artwork carries a feeling of nostalgia mixed with fear, but also lightness of being.

THE HEADS OF PABLO PICASSO

Whether depicting a woman, a man, or even a bull, his heads became a visual diary of his artistic evolution.

From the softness of his Blue and Rose periods to the fractured forms of Cubism and the expressive distortions of his later years, each face reflects a different chapter of his career.

UNDERCOVER Spring Summer 2024 by Jun Takahashi

Happy World Collage Day with the works of Ladislav Valašek.

World Collage Day is an annual celebration initiated by Kolaj Magazine, to honor this intricate craft, held on the second Saturday of May.

Paper collage dates back to 10th-century Japan, where calligraphers glued paper fragments onto surfaces while composing poetry. Collage art exploded in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, becoming closely tied to the rise of Modernism.

Ladislav Valašek (b. 1954) is a Czech artist known for his intricate handmade collages, created from fragments of old newspapers, books, and printed matter. After a career in foreign trade, diplomacy, and consultancy; and a lifelong passion for football, art remained a constant presence.

Creating collages is his daily ritual, dismantling printed histories and reassembling them into vivid, imagined worlds.

Martin Schongauer 'Study of Peonies' 1472

Martin Schongauer (c.1450–1491) was a German painter and engraver celebrated for his extraordinary precision and delicate linework, he helped bridge the medieval painting techniques with the early Renaissance mindset in Northern Europe.

In Study of Peonies (1472), Schongauer turns his attention to a simple plant, observing it with patience, accuracy, and quiet admiration. Flowers served as symbols in religious scenes, lilies meant purity and roses were for love. But his shift toward botanical realism marked an important moment in art history, where careful observation served both beauty and knowledge.

Toshiko Hishida 'A Glass' 1997

There is something so soothing about this paining.

Whilst a glass is an unusual subject for a still life, it's an amazing object to use to show how the light reflects.

Innocenzo Fraccaroli ‘Wounded Achilles’ 1842

Fraccaroli was a Neoclassical sculptor of the Canova school. He aimed to depict Achilles’ surprise at the very moment he was wounded in the heel.

A plaster cast of this work is on display at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti in Verona. The marble version is in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan.