Nasty Women Tour

07/04/2025

For more than a century, her work was attributed to the men around her—particularly the man who raised her: Claude Monet. But Blanche Hoschedé Monet, Claude’s stepdaughter and devoted pupil, was more than just a footnote in Impressionism—she was a remarkable artist in her own right, painting with a sensitivity and skill that matched her celebrated mentor.

Blanche grew up in Giverny, where the gardens, fields, and shifting light shaped both her and Monet's art. She wasn't just watching from the sidelines; she was painting beside him, even managing his studio and helping him during his later years when his eyesight began to fail. For decades, though, her paintings were tucked into attics or wrongly credited to Claude, lost to a familiar pattern: a woman's talent overshadowed by a man’s fame.

What’s most moving about Blanche’s story isn’t just the injustice of her erasure—it’s the quiet persistence of her voice through her work. Her brushstrokes are full of light and intimacy, capturing the same water lilies and poppies as Monet, but with a feminine restraint and poetic calm that is distinctly her own. While Monet’s canvases pulse with bold color and grandeur, Blanche’s offer moments of stillness—windows into a quieter, more introspective Impressionism.

Today, as her paintings re-emerge in exhibitions and scholarly work, there's something deeply affirming about watching Blanche’s legacy finally bloom.

05/04/2025

Annette Bezor (Australian painter) 1950 - 2020
Friends, 1977
oil on canvas
164.5 x 164 cm. (64.8 x 64.6 in.)
private collection
© photo Leonard Joel

Annette Bezor (5 April 1950 – 9 January 2020), born Annette Bateman, was an Australian painter and feminist, who lived and worked in Adelaide, South Australia. She was known for appropriating classical and pop culture images of women and using them to create stylised representations of them, often sexually charged images but not pandering to the male gaze and thereby highlighting society's attitudes towards women. Her work won significant commercial and critical success.

Bezor had 30 solo exhibitions, with her works exhibited throughout Australia as well as in Europe, Hong Kong, and the USA. She was a finalist in multiple art prizes in Australia, including the Archibald, Doug Moran and Sulman prizes as well as the Portia Geach Memorial Award in Sydney.

Bezor was born on 5 April 1950 in Adelaide, South Australia, into a working-class family, the second child of Alma (Billi) Smith and policeman Keith Bateman. After her parents divorced, she changed her surname to Bezor, which originated from her mother's family. She left school at 14 because of bullying, and worked in a hairdressing salon where a remark by the manager on her "puppy fat" led to her suffering from anorexia for four years. She married twice, briefly.

In 1974 she enrolled in the South Australian School of Art and graduated in 1977 with a degree in fine art. She afterwards said that she had felt "stultified" working in the male-dominated art school environment, and did her best work at home. In the mid-1970s the Women's Art Movement in South Australia was strong, which Bezor found empowering.

In the early 1980s, Bezor's work The Snake is Dead won critical acclaim. Her work was exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne in the 1980s. She was awarded the Australia Council's studio residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, which she took up in 1987 and where she painted Romance is in the Air. This was described by her agent Paul Greenaway as a "turning point in her career", where she worked on developing her signature style of appropriating images of women and subverting them in her paintings.

She continued her career after her return from Paris, achieving significant commercial and critical success. In the 1990s, her work was exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and in the 2000s, Hong Kong, Spain, Taipei and New York. She was commissioned by the Parliament of Victoria to paint the official portrait of the former Victorian Premier, Joan Kirner in 1994.

Bezor was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2017. She continued to paint and at the same time caring for her mother until her death in 2019. The last exhibitions of her work were Ricochet, at the Hill Smith Gallery in Adelaide, and a companion retrospective exhibition, Ricochet 2, at Aptos Cruz Gallery at Stirling, in the Adelaide Hills, both in October 2019.

Bezor died at the Mary Potter Hospice at the Calvary North Adelaide Hospital on 9 January 2020.

Source: Wikipedia

05/04/2025

In the 1950s and 1960s, fashion in the UK was characterized by a sense of elegance and formality, with people taking great pride in their appearance. Men often wore tailored suits, complete with crisp shirts and ties, creating a sharp, polished look. Women also embraced stylish dresses, often cinched at the waist, with gloves and hats completing their outfits. The attention to detail in daily attire reflected the social importance of looking presentable, especially for work, social events, or simply when out in public.

The 1960s, in particular, marked a shift toward more youthful and adventurous fashion, especially in urban centers like London. The mod subculture brought with it a new sense of style, with slim-cut suits, bold patterns, and stylish accessories becoming popular among both men and women. While traditional elegance remained, there was a growing sense of individual expression through clothing, with trends like the mini skirt for women and the tailored, sharp look for men defining the era.

Throughout both decades, the well-dressed appearance was not just about fashion, but also a reflection of cultural values. People were more likely to dress up for everyday activities, whether it was going to work, shopping, or meeting friends. The emphasis on neatness and style in public life underscored the importance of social norms and the desire to present oneself in a dignified and respectable manner, a stark contrast to the more relaxed attitudes toward fashion that would develop in the decades that followed.

05/04/2025

05/04/2025

Victoria Santa Cruz was a force—bold, brilliant, unapologetically herself. Born in 1922 in Lima, , she grew up in a creative and politically conscious household, one of nine children in a family where art, music, and Black pride were part of everyday life. But even with that nurturing foundation, she faced the sting of early and often. One moment in particular shaped her forever: being told she couldn’t play with the other little girls because of the color of her skin. She was just seven years old.

That moment didn’t break her. It awakened her.

Victoria went on to become a poet, choreographer, composer, director, and an unshakable advocate for Afro-Peruvian identity and culture. She studied in Paris at the Sorbonne and the École Supérieure des Études Chorégraphiques, where she immersed herself in theater and dance, then returned to Peru with a mission: to revive and celebrate the African heritage that colonialism and racism had tried to erase.

She didn’t just perform art—she lived it as resistance. Victoria brought ancestral rhythms and dances back to the stage, honoring the stories and spiritual roots of Afro-Peruvians. In the 1960s and ’70s, she founded groundbreaking theater groups, including the Teatro y Danzas Negras del Perú, and served as director of the National Folklore Ensemble of Peru. Through her work, she elevated cultural forms that had long been marginalized, reclaiming them with pride and power.

Her spoken-word poem *“Me Gritaron Negra”* (“They Shouted Black at Me”) is perhaps her most iconic piece. It's raw, rhythmic, and deeply personal—a declaration of self-acceptance and a refusal to be diminished by the racism she endured. In it, she moves from internalized shame to proud defiance, voicing a journey that resonates far beyond borders.

She showed the world that art can be revolution, and that pride in one's heritage isn’t just beautiful—it’s necessary.

03/04/2025

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, between 1652 and 1653

Kunsthistorisches Museum

02/04/2025

lol!

💙🙌 This is true! 👏❤️

02/04/2025

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – after 1654),
Portrait of a seated lady, possibly Caterina Savelli, Principessa di Albano
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

02/04/2025

Painting by Nicolai Fechin

# #

16/03/2025

16/02/2025

This is sadly true 😪

16/02/2025

Painted in 1800 by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine is a striking representation of a Black woman at the turn of the 19th century. Created in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the painting captures a moment of shifting social and political dynamics, particularly regarding race, gender, and colonialism. The subject, believed to be a formerly enslaved woman from the French Caribbean, sits with an expression of quiet dignity, her gaze meeting the viewer directly. Draped in a white garment that contrasts sharply with her dark skin, she is depicted with the same grandeur and attention to detail as the aristocratic portraits of the era.

The painting’s exhibition at the 1800 Paris Salon was significant. At a time when Black figures were rarely portrayed in Western portraiture outside of servitude or exoticized roles, Benoist’s work presented the woman as an individual, rather than an accessory to a European subject. This was a radical statement, especially considering that France had abolished slavery in 1794, though Napoleon would reinstate it just two years after the painting’s creation. Benoist’s decision to paint a Black woman in such a manner has been interpreted in various ways—some see it as a statement on racial equality, while others view it within the context of France’s complex colonial history and the limited agency of both women and Black individuals at the time.

The artist herself was one of few women to gain recognition in the male-dominated art world of early 19th-century France. A student of Jacques-Louis David, Benoist trained within the Neoclassical tradition and was influenced by revolutionary ideals. However, her career remained constrained by gender norms, and she ceased painting professionally after her husband, a government official under Napoleon, objected to her artistic pursuits.

In 1818, the painting was acquired by Louis XVIII and entered the collection of the French state. Over time, its significance has grown beyond its initial reception, now recognized as a rare and powerful depiction of a Black woman from this period in European art history. Today, it remains in the Louvre, where it continues to prompt discussions on race, representation, and the role of women in art.

14/02/2025

A morning that was supposed to bring hope turned out to be just a continuation of the nightmare. The painting "The Return of the Prodigal Daughter in the Year of the Great Plague", created by the British artist Ellen Louise Clayce in 1887, takes the viewer back to the dark times of the Great Plague that swept England in 1665-1666. This work of art not only reflects the historical tragedy, but also touches on the eternal themes of family, sin and redemption.

The plague epidemic, which took the lives of about one hundred thousand people, became one of the most terrible pages in the history of England.

The disease, which knew no boundaries, struck everyone without distinction: rich and poor, old and young. People lived in constant fear, and the city streets were empty, turning into silent cemeteries. It is in this atmosphere of despair that the scene depicted in the painting unfolds.

At dawn, a woman, looking out the door of her house, discovers the body of her eldest daughter in the snow, who once left her home in search of freedom and adventure. Now she lies motionless, and her fate is unknown. Perhaps she is already dead, or perhaps her last effort was the desire to return home in the face of imminent death. The mother stands on the threshold, torn between fear and hope. To find out the truth, she needs to touch her daughter, but this action can be fatal, because the plague spares no one.

The threshold of the house becomes a symbol of the boundary between life and death, between safety and danger. On one side is the mother, personifying family values ​​and love, her youngest daughter, who fearfully hugs her knees, and a small lap dog, feeling anxious. On the other side is the eldest daughter, whose life may have already been cut short, and her return becomes a symbol of retribution for sins and mistakes.

The composition of the painting is filled with drama. The artist masterfully uses light and shadow to emphasize the contrast between the warmth of the hearth and the cold of the outside world. The snow covering the ground symbolizes not only physical cold, but also emotional alienation. The faces of the characters express fear, despair and hopelessness, which makes the scene even more poignant. ___________________________________

11/02/2025

Lina Cavalieri, born Natalina Cavalieri on December 25, 1874, in Viterbo, Italy, was a figure of extraordinary beauty and talent whose life and career captivated the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as the “highest expression of Venus on Earth,” Cavalieri was celebrated not only for her stunning looks but also for her remarkable voice, which made her one of the most famous sopranos of her time. Her life was a blend of art, glamour, and drama, embodying the allure and complexity of the Belle Époque.

Cavalieri’s early life was marked by hardship. Orphaned at a young age, she was raised in a Roman Catholic orphanage, where her singing talent was first recognized. Determined to escape poverty, she began performing in cafés and music halls, quickly gaining attention for her voice and striking appearance. Her beauty was so extraordinary that it often overshadowed her musical talent, earning her comparisons to the goddess Venus and making her a sought-after figure in the worlds of opera and entertainment.

Her breakthrough came when she was discovered by a Russian nobleman who helped her secure formal vocal training. This training allowed her to transition from performing in modest venues to gracing the stages of some of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe, including La Scala in Milan and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Cavalieri’s voice, characterized by its warmth and emotional depth, earned her critical acclaim, and she became particularly renowned for her performances in operas by composers such as Puccini and Massenet.

Despite her success as a soprano, Cavalieri’s beauty often drew more attention than her artistry. She became a muse for artists and photographers, and her image was widely circulated in postcards and advertisements, making her one of the first global celebrities. Her fame extended beyond the opera world, and she was celebrated in high society, where her charm and elegance made her a favorite among aristocrats and intellectuals.

Cavalieri’s personal life was as dramatic as her career. She married multiple times, with her relationships often making headlines. Her marriages included unions with a Russian prince, a French aristocrat, and an American millionaire, reflecting her ability to navigate and captivate the highest echelons of society. However, her romantic life was also marked by turmoil, including scandals and heartbreaks that added to her mystique.

In addition to her operatic career, Cavalieri ventured into acting, appearing in silent films during the early years of cinema. Her transition to the silver screen showcased her versatility and further cemented her status as an international icon. Despite the challenges of adapting to a new medium, she brought the same grace and charisma to her film roles that had made her a star on the stage.

Tragically, Cavalieri’s life was cut short during World War II. She died on February 7, 1944, in Florence, Italy, during an Allied bombing raid. Her death marked the end of an era, but her legacy as a symbol of beauty, talent, and resilience endures. Lina Cavalieri remains a fascinating figure, remembered not only for her voice and looks but also for her ability to transcend the boundaries of art and society, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural history of her time. Her life story continues to inspire, a testament to the power of ambition, artistry, and the enduring allure of the “highest expression of Venus on Earth.”

11/02/2025

"Sleeping Titania" (1840) by Richard Dadd is a mesmerizing Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece depicting Shakespeare’s fairy queen asleep in an enchanted forest. Dadd’s intricate details bring the scene to life, with lush flora, playful fairies, and a dreamlike atmosphere. Despite his tragic life—marked by mental illness and confinement—Dadd created works of extraordinary beauty and imagination. This painting reflects his fascination with fantasy and his technical brilliance, blending realism with whimsy. A testament to art’s power to transcend adversity.