Before the 20th century, most of the art coming into the mainstream was made up of landscape and realism pieces, and while there was some experimentation here and there, it wouldn’t be until the revolution of abstract art that we began to see truly unique pieces of work that were unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
Most paintings are created with a basic idea or theme in mind; and while the viewer is often left to make up their own mind about what’s going on, there’s usually at least some kind of context available in the work for their imagination to leverage off of.
This isn’t always the case, however, and some works of art are so strange and out of touch with reality that they make almost no sense whatsoever to the viewer, if any at all.
Leonardo da Vinci is an artist that hardly needs any kind of introduction. Often regarded by historians as the greatest artist and inventor of all time, da Vinci was gifted with a number of talents so advanced and refined that he stood out during a time when the world was going through a transformation.
Sculptures can be found around the world, from residential homes to national museums. Most of them tend to be the normal fare: statues of people, sculptures of religious importance, and of nature. But there are some creations out there that are so out of the ordinary and bizarre that they tend to stop bystanders in their tracks.
Next to the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo is the piece of art which draws people to the Louvre in the heart of Paris. But what is the story behind this incredible work of art?
Artists are the true definition of the creative type, with their minds, passions, fears, doubts, and hearts sprawled across their canvases. And it’s not that surprising to learn that an artist might add a hidden image or text to a piece that they’re working on – as an expression of themselves, it makes sense that they would want their viewers to question every inch of their work.
Having gotten its start with a group of artists who were based in Paris in the late 1800s, all art aficionados will be aware of the Impressionists and the significant contribution that they made to art as we know it today.
The world has long admired priceless works of art in museums and galleries, so much so that they may have even had these pieces replicated or reprinted to add to their collection. This is a past-time more often experienced by the wealthy, although it’s accessible enough for us ordinary folk too.
When we picture the great artists from throughout history, we tend to think of people that spent most of their early life being trained by some of the best masters of the time. The truth is, however, that many of these artists came from poor families that weren’t able to afford this kind of training, meaning that they had to go out and do it on their own.
World War 2 was arguably the most violent time in human history, where countless millions lost their lives, entire cities were destroyed, and humanity lost tremendous amounts of history and culture. In particular was the amount of artwork that was plundered during the reign of the Nazis and their war machine, where they took thousands of pieces from museums and collections from around Europe and locked them away for much of the conflict.