Explore the past, understand the present, and inspire the future.

Image title: Hermann von Wedigh III (died 1560) Medium: Oil and gold on oak Date: 1532 Source: The Met Collection   “ One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent. ” — Epictetus “The Frame Is a Lie”: Meta-Artworks That Refuse to Contain Themselves   Introduction: The Politics of the Perimeter What does it mean to “frame” a work of art? At its surface, the answer seems Read more…

Image title: Prayer in the Mosque Medium: Oil on canvas Date: 1871 Source: The Met Collection   Introduction: Kafka’s Shadow in Oil and Ink In the dim corridors of Cold War Eastern Europe, between the echoing typewriters and rubber stamps of endless paperwork, a distinct form of visual art emerged—one haunted not by ghosts but by documents, desks, and dizzying systems of bureaucracy. In Czechoslovakia and Poland, where the state apparatus loomed large and omnipresent, Read more…

Image title: Holy Family with an Angel Medium: Tempera on canvas, transferred from wood Date: ca. 1490 Source: The Met Collection   Introduction: When Machines Dream in Color Art has always moved in tandem with its times, reflecting both cultural tides and technological revolutions. Today, one of the most compelling dialogues in contemporary art involves artificial intelligence—particularly neural style transfer (NST). This algorithmic technique allows machines to remap the style of one image onto the Read more…

Introduction: The Art of Ephemerality Long before the rise of blockchain technology and the speculative buzz of NFTs, a different kind of disruption was quietly detonating within the art world. In the 1950s and 60s, a group of radical visionaries began creating artworks that were not meant to last. They wanted their creations to decay, vanish, or destroy themselves—on purpose. This movement, known as Auto-Destructive Art, was a direct response to the post-war industrial world, Read more…

Introduction: The Surrealist Threshold From melting clocks to dreamscapes of impossible geometries, surrealism has long invited viewers to suspend the logic of the waking world in favor of the unconscious and fantastical. Now, as artificial intelligence generates strikingly bizarre images at the click of a button, the question arises: can machines truly produce surrealist art in the spirit of Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, or Leonora Carrington? Or are they merely adept mimicry engines, stitching together Read more…

Introduction: Art in the Time of Fear Throughout the 20th century, authoritarian regimes across the globe sought to silence dissident voices. Yet while guns and laws could suppress speech, the visual language of art proved far more elusive. In countries like Francoist Spain and Pinochet’s Chile, artists were forced underground, exiled from institutions, and denied public platforms. But instead of silence, they turned to subtlety—embedding messages in symbols, layering visual metaphors, and constructing entire artistic Read more…