World Of Art By Sue
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worldofartbysue.bsky.social
World Of Art By Sue
@worldofartbysue.bsky.social
1K followers 2.3K following 910 posts
History of Art for everyone (themes change monthly)! Other interests include: world history, genealogy, books, photography, gardening, (US) football and dinosaurs. Life goal: to learn something new every day. Degree in Art History from McGill University
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New month, new theme! The theme for December is: Pop Art. It's gonna be a groovy month :)
EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924 – 2005), “Meet the People”, 1948. Tate Museum, London UK.
#arthistory #art #PopArt #EduardoPaolozzi
EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924 – 2005), “Meet the People”, 1948. Tate Museum, London UK. Despite what people usually think, Pop Art originated in the UK and the Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi is considered to be one of the movement’s pioneers. He described himself as a Surrealist artist, and the Surrealist influence on much of his work is obvious. Paolozzi’s philosophy was to not waste anything and he found many ways to incorporate seemingly unconnected and useless objects – from magazine clippings to wine boxes - into his collages. The term “Pop Art” was not coined until 1958, but in “Meet the People”, one of ten collages from Paolozzi’s “Bunk” series, we can already see the themes that would drive Pop: consumerism, celebrity culture and mass media. The components that went into “Meet the People” were taken primarily from magazines given to the artist by American GIs. Paolozzi created his collages in scrapbooks.
December 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekVforVowels
#Photography
#Ireland
Ancient Irish Entry (to Glendalough)
Located in county Wicklow in Ireland, Glendalough was the site of a 6th century monastic community. Pictured is the arched stone entryway to the complex. It is a beautiful and serene place to visit!
November 30, 2025 at 9:45 PM
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#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekVforVowels
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#Amagansett
Amagansett, NY sunset
A fiery red sky as the sun sets over the beach in Amagansett on Long Island, New York. A sliver of blue ocean is to the left, with a strip of beach sand and a grassy dune moving to the right, with beach houses on the horizon just where the yellow sun is going down.
November 30, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
LUCIAN FREUD (1922 - 2011), “Woman with Eyes Closed”, 2002. The theft of this painting, along with six others, from the Kunstal Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2012 inspired an opera in 2025.
#arthitory #art #LucianFreud
A majority of stolen art in modern times, aside from looting during wartime, is thought to be masterminded by organized crime to be used as collateral in illicit business deals or held to extract ransoms. These thefts are well planned out and professionally executed. The 2012 Kunstal Museum theft itself was well planned but the thieves had not thought ahead as to how they would cash out the heist. The three men involved were busy with petty burglaries around Rotterdam when they got the brilliant idea to aim higher. They scouted the Kunstal Museum, realized there were no night security guards and broke in undetected. They cut seven canvases from their frames – grabbing small paintings that could fit easily into their bags – and escaped to their home country of Romania. Back in Romania, things got tricky as they belatedly realized that the paintings were too famous, and the theft received too much international publicity, making the loot impossible to sell. One of the thieves gave the paintings to his mother to hold, and as the authorities got closer and closer to the perpetrators, she apparently panicked and burned the evidence in her stove. All involved were caught and sentenced to prison but the paintings, alas, appear to be lost forever.
November 30, 2025 at 6:08 PM
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#AlphabetChallenge
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#Tokyo
Akihabara Electric Town, Tokyo, Japan
The colorful advertisements and lights of Tokyo's Electric Town shopping hub.
November 30, 2025 at 2:27 AM
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#AlexanderHamilton
Statue of Alexander Hamilton, Paterson, New Jersey
Statue of Alexander Hamilton at the Paterson Great Falls National Park in Paterson, NJ
November 29, 2025 at 10:26 PM
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#NewOrleans
Mardi Gras Indian, NOLA
A Mardi Gras Indian displays his beautifully intricate beadwork costume during a parade in New Orleans. He is covered from head to toe (with just his eyes and forehead showing) by his handmade outfit of beaded images and feathers.
November 29, 2025 at 3:56 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
RUFINO TAMAYO (1899 - 1991), “Tres Personajes (Three Characters)”, 1970. “Tres Personajes” was a later painting by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo.
#arthistory #art #RufinoTamayo
In 1977, this painting was bought by an art collector in Houston for $55,000 as a gift to his wife. The owners placed it in a storage unit when they were moving into a new home, and somehow or other the painting was no longer there when the move was completed and the storage unit was emptied. It remained officially listed as a missing artwork until 2007, when it was returned to the original owner who then sold it at auction for more than $1 Million to a private collector. It is still not known exactly how the painting was removed from storage (and Texas), but in 2003 it was found in New York City by a woman out for a walk in her Upper West Side neighborhood. She spotted the bright, energetic colors poking out of a pile of rubbish on the side of the street; she liked it and took it home. Her curiosity led her to research the painting, which she eventually got authenticated, and once she figured out that it was a missing piece, she was able to return it to the original owner. If paintings could talk, this one could probably tell a good tale!
November 29, 2025 at 3:51 PM
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Orchid
A brilliant magenta orchid sits on a weathered shelf at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida
November 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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Underwater!
A young boy swimming underwater, as seen from above.
November 28, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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An anhinga bird, at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida
A black and white anhinga bird sitting on a tree branch at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, scouting around for his next meal!
November 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
HENRY MOORE (1898 - 1986), “Reclining Figure”, 1969-70. The theft of Henry Moore’s massive bronze sculpture “Reclining Figure”, which weighed 2.1 tons, does not have a happy ending.
#arthistory #art #sculpture #HenryMoore
Moore's sculpture show his signature modern take on the female form - all angles and mass, no head or individual features but still, somehow, evocative of a woman reclining. The sculpture was stolen in 2005 from the Henry Moore Foundation, located in Moore’s former home in the Hertfordshire countryside, in the middle of the night. Few clues were found and the authorities were left scratching their heads as to “why” and “how”. In 2009, the British police issued a statement that they believed the piece had been chopped up and sold for scrap metal. The sculpture in 2005 was worth $18 Million; the scrap metal value was approximately $2,000. Those responsible for the theft have not been caught, and their method for removing such a weighty piece undetected remains a mystery.
November 28, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
GUSTAV KLIMT (1862 - 1918), “Portrait of a Lady”, 1916-17. Galleria d’arte moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza, Italy.
“Portrait of a Lady” is a late painting by the Austrian Gustav Klimt, created after his golden phase in a more expressionistic manner.
#arthistory #art #Klimt
This painting was purchased in 1925 by the Italian collector Giuseppe Ricci Oddi, who bequeathed his extensive art collection to the city of Piacenza in Italy. In 1997, the painting was stolen as the gallery was preparing an exhibition. In 2019, gardeners clearing ivy from an exterior wall at the Gallery found the painting, wrapped in a garbage bag and stuffed into a concealed wall niche. Later, two local repeat burglars were arrested and their confession was a story in itself. They claimed that they had removed the painting from the Gallery by using a fishing line and hook; they had kept it in a home until about four years before, when they decided to hide it in the Gallery’s exterior wall. Their plan was to announce its location once the statute of limitations had run out so that they could not be charged with the theft, but the gardener made his surprise discovery before they could make their announcement. One of the men wrote a letter to a local newspaper, declaring that “we have given a gift to the city by returning the canvas”. Luckily, “Portrait of a Lady” did not spend its entire 22 missing years in the wall and it was recovered in good condition. The burglars were not charged with the theft, but they were convicted of several other local burglaries and were sent to prison.
November 27, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
EDVARD MUNCH (1863 - 1944), “The Scream”, 1893. Najonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway.
Munch painted four versions of his iconic “The Scream” – two oil paintings and two pastels (he later made lithographic prints, as well).
#arthistory #art #Munch
Munch painted four versions of his iconic “The Scream” – two oil paintings and two pastels (he later made lithographic prints, as well). Both of the paintings have been stolen (and recovered) during the 20th century. The painting at the National Museum in Oslo was stolen in 1994 on the opening day of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. The thieves broke a window, cut the wire holding “The Scream” and left a note “Thousand thanks for the bad security!” in an operation that took less than one minute. The authorities refused to pay a ransom demand for $1 Million and, through a determined investigation, found and recovered the painting later that year. In 1996, four men were convicted of the theft; one of the men convicted was Paal Enger, who had been convicted of stealing another Munch masterpiece in 1988. Munch’s paintings can be full of pain and sadness, conveyed with a signature emotionally expressive style. He said that he saw a blood red sky one night while out for a walk and decided to put it in his painting. Some speculate that the red sky was the result of the volcanic explosion at Krakatoa some years before, while others think it is an internal expression of his own depression and mental illness. The Najonalmuseet painting has a penciled inscription in the upper left corner, which has been authenticated as being in Munch’s handwriting. The inscription: “could only have been painted by a madman”.
November 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US.
#arthistory #art #Bonnard
PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US. Pierre Bonnard belonged to the French avant-garde group known as Les Nabis, although he always claimed his independence. In 1892, he painted “Still Lie with Guelder Roses” in his Nabi style, with flattened dimensions and compositions that reflected his deep appreciation for Japanese prints. In 1929, Bonnard returned to the painting and added dabs of paint to the flowers to give them more dimensionality, which spoke to his personal style of that later date. This gentle still life ended up in the collection of David David-Weill, the Jewish French-American head of the Lazard-Frères banking house. In 1943, the Nazis looted about 2,000 pieces from David-Weill’s extensive and exquisite art collection in Paris, including this work. The looted artworks were shipped to salt mines in Austria for storage to wait out the war; they were recovered there in 1945 by the Allies’ Monuments Men. The Bonnard painting was returned to David David-Weill, who had escaped from France and settled in the US, in 1946. His heirs eventually sold it to another collector, who gifted it to the Nelson Atkins Museum in 2004.
November 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
LAKOTA GHOST SHIRT, c. 1890. Cultural Center of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, Eagle Butte, South Dakota US.
#arthistory #art #GhostDance #USHistory
The Ghost Dance was a mystical ceremony, popular among the Lakota and other Plains Native American tribes, that was believed to hasten the reunification of the tribes, end the expansion into their territories and bring back the once plentiful bison; this reunification would be brought about by the spirits of the dead returning to aid the living and the victors would usher in a time of peace and prosperity. The Ghost dancers wore shirts imbued with mystical powers that were believed to render the wearers bulletproof and invincible. These sacred shirts were decorated with feathers and hand-painted symbols (such as stars, sun and animals) that were often seen in visions and trances and held special meaning to the shirt wearer. This particular Lakota Ghost Shirt was taken from the body of a victim at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The bullet holes prove that the mystical powers did not hold for this wearer. The shirt is made of fringed muslin and is decorated with symbols, mostly faded, and raven, owl and eagle feathers around the neck, most in tatters now. In 1892, a member of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show (which was performing in Glasgow) sold this Ghost Shirt to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Scotland. In the 1990s, a visitor to the Museum recognized the shirt as the sacred object that it is and, after a prolonged negotiation, the Ghost Shirt was returned to the Lakota people in August 1999.
November 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
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Battered siding plus bare branches
I like the simplicity in this shot: the geometry of the roofline and attic fan vent with the lacy touch of the winter tree branches. All in tones of black, white and cream.
November 23, 2025 at 6:52 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853 - 1890), “Fortifications of Paris with Houses”, 1887. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.
#arthistory #art #watercolor #VanGogh
On some occasions, art thieves have seemed to have a more humanitarian motive than to make a profit (or perhaps they have a change of heart and try to spin the more humanitarian motive). The theft of Vincent van Gogh’s “Fortifications of Paris with Houses” in 2003 fits this scenario, plus it was an opportunity for wry British humor. Van Gogh’s “Fortifications of Paris with Houses” is a watercolor work showing the 1840 fortifications on the northern outskirts of the city – not far from an apartment that Vincent shared with his brother Theo at the time. These fortifications were demolished after World War I to make way for a boulevard. The painting was one of three artworks (one by Gauguin, one by Picasso and this one by van Gogh) that were stolen in the night in 2003. The thieves by-passed the gallery’s security system, took the paintings and rolled them into a cardboard tube. The next day, a telephone tip led to the paintings’ recovery in a rundown public toilet close by the gallery. There was a handwritten note along with the works in the recovered cardboard tube that said: “the intention was not to steal. ONLY to highlight the WOEFUL security”. The Whitworth’s security system was promptly upgraded. The British press later dubbed that lavatory “the Loovre”!
November 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM
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Old paint
Old red paint and metal handle on an abandoned barn door in the Poconos, Pennsylvania
November 22, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841 - 1919), “Landscape on the Banks of the Seine”, 1879. Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland US.
#arthistory #art #Renoir
This small (5 ½ x 9”) painting was part of the collection of art collector Saidie A. May, who purchased it in Paris in 1925. May was told that Renoir had painted the scene on a linen napkin as a gift to his girlfriend (he was unmarried at the time); later research by the Baltimore Museum of Art confirmed that the material was indeed that of a linen napkin although the girlfriend part cannot be authenticated. May loaned the piece to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1937 as a long-term loan. This lovely little Impressionist painting was stolen from the museum in 1951, after May had died but before her will, giving her collection to the museum, was probated. Fast forward to 2012, when the painting was put up for auction by a woman who claimed that she had purchased the piece at a flea market in West Virginia for $7. Subsequent legal action adjudged that the Renoir rightfully belonged to the Baltimore Museum of Art and it returned to the collection there. Nobody seems to know how the painting was taken from the museum or where it had been for over 60 years.
November 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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Abandoned blast furnace
The rusting hulk of a decommissioned blast furnace in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania recalls a cityscape of skyscrapers.
November 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
BERTHE MORISOT (1841 – 1895), “Young Woman at the Ball”, 1875. Musée Marmottan, Paris, France.
Morisot was the lone female artist who threw in her lot with the upstart French Impressionists at the beginning of their movement.
#arthistory #art #Impressionism #Morisot
Like her male counterparts, Morisot focused on painting modern life but, unlike them, she could not hang out in bars and cafés to mingle with the common folk. Being an upper class lady, however, allowed her to attend the opera and balls and so her work, which gives beautiful expression to the female experience, is filled with women attending social events and tending their children. “Young Woman at the Ball”, like most Impressionist paintings at the time, did not sell and so Morisot hung it on her dining room wall. In 1985, this painting, along with eight other Impressionist masterpieces (including five Monets), was stolen from the Musée Marmottan in Paris in a brazen daytime armed robbery. The thieves knew exactly what paintings they wanted, and they also knew that the security alarm system was only turned on at night when there were no museum visitors so the robbery took place when the museum first opened in the morning. Authorities linked the theft to organized crime in Japan. Through dogged investigation, the paintings were found in an apartment in Corsica and all were recovered in 1990. The Morisot canvas had been damaged during the theft but was able to be repaired once returned to the Musée Marmottan.
November 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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A doorway that has not been opened for so long that vines are growing up around it.
November 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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November's theme: Stolen Art
J. M. W. TURNER (1775 - 1851), “Glaucus and Scylla”, 1841. Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas US.
#arthistory #art #Turner
Turner’s “Glaucus and Scylla” is another painting belonging to the collector Anna Jaffe that was seized and sold off by the Vichy government of France in 1942. The painting depicts an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the sea god Glaucus lusts after the beautiful ocean nymph Scylla. The story goes that Circe, who loved Glaucus, became so jealous that she poisoned the water that Scylla drank, thereby turning her into the sea monster/rock that preyed on sailors (she is familiar to readers of The Odyssey in particular). Turner paints Scylla fleeing from the outstretched arms of her would-be lover. The painting was purchased twice by the Kimball: first in 1966, without a clear provenance or history of ownership, and then after the painting was restituted to the descendants of Anna Jaffe in 2006 and sold at auction to the Kimball in 2007.
November 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
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#Pennsylvania
Abandoned barn
An abandoned barn structure in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, with peeling paint and vegetation growing up the side and in the doorway.
November 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM