MARTIN PARR

Martin Parr (b. 1952).

‘Blue Helmets’ rescue art treasures from the rubble

Inside the crumbling medieval church of San Francesco di Visso, the “blue helmets” of the art world are racing to save a masterpiece damaged in Italy’s devastating earthquake last year.

ANCIENT CAVE PAINTINGS DEFACED WITH GRAFFITI

Ancient cave paintings about 8,000 years old at a world heritage site in the Sahara desert have been defaced with graffiti.

Vandals scrawled their names on top of the artworks in French and Arabic.

View full article HERE.

PALMYRA

Before (2016) and after (2017).

NIMRUD

Nimrud is the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic name for the ancient Assyrian city of Kalhu (the Biblical Calah), located 30 kilometres south of the city of Mosul, and 5 kilometres south of the village of Selamiyah, in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia.

Archaeological excavations at the site began in 1845, and were conducted at intervals between then and 1879, and then from 1949 onwards. Many important pieces were discovered, with most being moved to museums in Iraq and amongst at least 76 museums worldwide (including 36 in the United States and 13 in the United Kingdom).

The Assyrian king Shalmaneser I (1274 BC–1245 BC) built up Kalhu (Nimrod) into a major city during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1050 BC). However, the ancient city of Assur remained the capital of Assyria, as it had been since c. 3500 BC.

The city gained fame when king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) of the Neo Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) made it his capital at the expense of Assur. He built a large palace and temples in the city that had fallen into a degree of disrepair during the Dark Ages of the mid 11th to mid 10th centuries BC.

MUSEUMS DURING THE WWII

The Hermitage Museum.

 

The Louvre Museum

 

The Liverpool Museum.

 

The National Gallery.

SYRIA

WOMEN

Photos: Mihaela Noroc.

KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976).

Salvar

FRANZ SEDLACEK (1891-1945)

Franz Sedlacek (1891–1945) was an Austrian painter who belonged to the tradition known as “New Objectivity” (“neue Sachlichkeit”), an artistic movement similar to Magical Realism. At the end of the Second World War he “disappeared” as a soldier of the Wehrmacht somewhere in Poland.

Franz Sedlacek is considered as one of the most outstanding Austrian artists of the inter-war period, whose mysterious and still fascinating work resists common classifications. In his early graphic period he drew up surreal and threatening dream worlds that oscillated between the discoveries of Freud’s psychoanalysis and the dubious social alienation of his time. Later he turned towards oil painting and the style of the old Dutch masters. The motives changed from spooky dances to wide, deserted landscapes – they got calmer though not idyllic and rather exemplified the alienation and loneliness of the individual. Here and there – his disappearance in the apocalyptic confusion of the Second World War seems like a tragic fulfillment – Sedlacek acted in his art as a visionary of calamity.

More about the artist HERE.

JOSEF HERMAN

Josef Herman (1911-2000)
“Refugees”, c. 1941.

SELFIE 1940

FRANCINE CHRISTOPHE