By Nina Heyn When I wrote a chapter about Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656) in my book, Women in Art: Artists, Models and Those Who Made It Happen, I wanted to separate the sensationalism of her biography from her art, which was original and high-quality, regardless of the unusual circumstances of her…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Sometimes, with artists who died young, we can only wonder what greatness they would have achieved had they lived long enough. Such a list could include Raphael—the wunderkind of the mid-Renaissance—the talented Impressionists Frédéric Bazille and Gustave Caillebotte, who could have created masterpieces had they lived as long…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout It was a strange time to be visiting Rome for an exhibition, Caravaggio 2025 at the Palazzo Barberini. The city was thronged with people lining up to view the casket of Pope Francis, who had just passed away. The cardinals had gathered for a conclave. Life and death,…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Personally, I love themed art exhibitions because I always learn from them. I learn about pictures that I have never before seen or sometimes gain an understanding of an artist’s evolution of style. Many painters have favorite motifs (Cezanne’s apples, van Gogh’s olive trees) or subjects (Renoir’s nudes,…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout My cultural calendar revolves around art exhibitions, and I have scouted out some highlights of this year’s interesting art shows in Europe and the U.S. I have also included a longer list of upcoming art exhibitions below. In Los Angeles, the J. Paul Getty Museum will start the…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout On March 2, the film industry will be celebrating new movies by bestowing Best Picture, Director, and Actor awards, along with a dozen other accolades to movies screened in 2024. This year’s crop of movies seems to be particularly unimpressive. Apart from a few outstanding contenders like Conclave…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “Windows have always interested me because they are a passageway between the exterior and the interior.”~ Henri Matisse January 1, 2025 marked the day when images of Henri Matisse’s paintings moved into the public domain. This means that some of his most iconic images will end up on…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In Christian iconography, the joy of the birth of Jesus is often celebrated in a theme of “Journey of the Magi” but also as “Adoration of the Shepherds.” While the “Magi” images allowed artists and their affluent patrons to show off the splendor of decoration, using gold-ground or…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout And they’re off…. Hundreds of movies are now in competition for numerous awards from critics associations, film industry guilds, academies, industry organizations, and, of course, the most important one: the Motion Picture Association of America that votes for the Academy Awards, popularly called Oscars. Here are some interesting…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout A couple of weeks ago, the city of Warsaw launched a new art museum. A sleek, white-walled Museum of Modern Art, designed by the American architect Thomas Phifer, has been built in the very center of the city, facing the wedding-cake-shaped, socialist-era Palace of Culture and Science. Conceptually,…