By Nina Heyn Anyone who has been in Paris for more than a few days can’t help but notice the dichotomy of modernity and historical heritage, evident at every turn. For example, you access an ultra-modern Fondation Louis Vuitton building designed by Frank Gehry by walking past the old fence ironwork of the Jardin d’Acclimatation…
By Nina Heyn We all face choices—large and small. For some types of choices that would be very painful to experience in real life, we are fine seeing them on screen. They can help to clarify our ideas or at least make for a good conversation piece. Here are a few viewing recommendations of stories…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “I am not one of those talking painters of whom there are so many now, who can tell you twenty-four times in one breath what art is but who have never once in twenty-four years of painting managed to show you what art is.”~ Caspar David Friedrich A…
“My world is one of crime. I steal from every artist around the world.”~ Wayne Thiebaud By Nina Heyn There are curiously few cityscapes in 20th- and 21st-century art. Impressionists documented the Paris of the last decade of the 19th century, but from about the 1900s until today, artists have been more interested in painting…
By Nina Heyn If it is spring in Paris, fashion is an obvious theme, but in the world of art, this means something more sophisticated than a runway at a designer house. Three major Paris museums have riffed on the theme of fashion in a manner reflecting these museums’ style and collections. House of Worth…
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 In the United States, but not so much in Europe, you can sometimes walk into a beautiful house decorated with paintings and knickknacks but with no books anywhere to be found. The advent of digital media in the form of audiobooks and Kindle readers has accelerated the disappearance…
By Nina Heyn Spring weather can still be depressing, with rains and winds reminding us that we are not entirely finished with winter. As an antidote, here are few TV shows set in picturesque parts of the world, providing us with a virtual trip to warmer and more exotic places than home. THE WHITE LOTUS…