Signifier

two black and white photographs of ships painted with bold geometric patterns: USS ‘West Mahomet’, November 1918 and RMS ‘Mauretania’ bringing troops home from Europe, December 1918

🛡️ ☀️ 🌪️

'The Dazzling Vortex'

Some Vorticists flirted with Fascism but their #art also helped defend the allied navies.

@remydean.bsky.social finds "a rare example of art, abstract art at that, having a proven & quantifiable function..."

🏁 medium.com/signifier/th...

#ArtHistory #history #design

detail of the splash from the painting 'A Bigger Splash' (1967) by David Hockney

💧

'David Hockney: Making a Splash with the Bigger Picture'

@kimvertue.bsky.social dives into the large-scale, immersive #art of the people’s painter who continues to please with new work more than six decades later…

💦 medium.com/signifier/da...

#painitng #ArtHistory #history #photography

two illustrations by Beatrix Potter: ‘Toad’s Tea Party’ (c.1905) - six toads gather around a small table, five sit on toadstools, and ‘Mycology Study’ - and accurate natural history illustration of fungi

it's #fungi season in the Eurozone so time to revisit:
'Beatrix Potter’s Field Studies' 🐸

@kimvertue.bsky.social on the #art & #science of a pioneering mycologist better known as the beloved children’s #author & #illustrator

🍄 medium.com/signifier/po...

#illustration #fungi #history #ArtHistory

two semi-abstract sketches in ink and watercolour by Géraldine Swatridge - one has tree forms in mainly orange, the other resembles a map of parkland in mainly greens

'Résumé'

#art by Géraldine Swatridge was our October 2021 #exhibition
in The Signifier : six : shot : gallery :

6️⃣ medium.com/the-signifie...

#ContemporaryArt #painting #drawing #landscape #illustration

People like to give Kapoor a hard time because of the Vantablack thing but his best public sculptures are genuinely good. "Cloud Gate" in Chicago is not only harmonious with the park but you instinctively want to touch it (a sign of a good sculpture!)

very damaged ambrotype photograph by Ukai Gyokusen - the image of a man with a shaven head can be discerned, a head and shoulders portrait, but a quarter of his face is obscured by damage to the image

'From Beyond the Grave — Unearthing Japan’s Forgotten Photographer'

@remydean.bsky.social finds a haunting beauty in the unique #art of Ukai Gyokusen which has finally surfaced after being, very literally, buried in the past

🔲 medium.com/signifier/fr...

#photography #ArtHistory #Japan #history

The first Pointillist painting - the green grass, for example, is made up of dots of pure colours including yellow, pink, blue and orange, yet our eye mixes these colours to give the vivid grass green of summer meadows - though it is used alongside smoother, blended brushstrokes here - the scale of the figures in the group of bathers is inconsistent...

French painter Georges-Pierre Seurat used Pointillism & Divisionism to point out divisions in society: "these ‘noble workers’ were as important as the people in grand historical paintings hung in museums"

@remydean.bsky.social considers early Modernist Masterpieces

🚣 medium.com/signifier/th...

"Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan yet from this angle The Great Wave seems ready to engulf the mountain, and flecks of foam seem like snow about to settle on its peak! It’s estimated the standing wave is cresting at about 30 feet. Impressive, though not a tsunami as it’s often described. The graceful curves and limited palate viewed at a distance are almost abstract and only upon closer inspection do we see three fishing boats and fishermen using all their skill not to sink beneath the great wave. It’s an eloquent depiction of man’s heroic struggle for survival against the daunting and often destructive forces of nature. Japan, after all, suffers the vagaries of typhoon seasons, earthquakes, and tsunamis." more description and analysis via link in post...

Quintessentially #Japanese, yet influenced by Western #art & printed with European blue, Hokusai’s print fascinated & inspired many Modern painters.

@kimvertue.bsky.social considers 'The Great Wave' & Hokusai’s series of 'Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'

medium.com/signifier/th...

‘The Finding of Moses’ (1904) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - historical painting of scene of a procession in which a lady is carried in a chair on the shoulders of servants and a baby in a wicker basket is held aloft

'Victoriana-o-rama'

Lawrence Alma-Tadema enjoyed success in his lifetime but his #art suffered the the vagaries of fickle fashion since his death… @remydean.bsky.social discusses the life & times of an artist who influenced #comics #illustration & Hollywood #movies

🖼️ medium.com/signifier/vi...

illustration by Tomoaki Ichikawa of strange creatures on a train

'Ghosts in the Words & Pictures'

@mitsukinonaka.bsky.social peeks into the world of Japan’s spooky picture #books through ‘Ghost Story Picture Books’ - the popular contemporary #horror anthology

medium.com/signifier/gh...

#illustration #イラスト #illustrations #folklore #ghosts #art #Japan

You are welcome. Enjoy your soak while soaking up the lyrical genius... 🛁

pop culture quoting red shoes cinematic imagery: album covers for 'Eldorado' by E.L.O. and 'The Red Shoes' by Kate Bush

👞 🩰 👢

'Whose Shoes?'

@remydean.bsky.social takes us on a quick-step through some shoe symbolism in #art & #culture along the path from innocence to experience... from #FairyTales to #horror films

👠 medium.com/signifier/wh...

#art #ArtHistory #shoes #illustration #イラスト #fashion #movies #history

"...purse lid decorated with elaborate motifs, including interlaced animals and wolves on either side of a human figure, also adorned with gold and garnet inlays. The use of Millefiori glass also indicates technical sophistication. These beads are produced by placing glass rods of different colours together and cutting across them to reveal a chequered effect" - more description and analysis in article via link in post

⚔️ 🐲 🐻

'Sutton Hoo, a Great Warrior’s Treasure'

@kimvertue.bsky.social uncovers mystique and myth surrounding Britain's most significant Anglo-Saxon ship burial and its surprisingly sophisticated artefacts

⛏️ medium.com/signifier/su...

#art #design #ArtHistory #history

Alberto Giacometti’s 'The Palace at 4 a.m.' is a small seemingly fragile construction of wood, glass, wire and string. This is from Giacometti’s earlier period when he was experimenting with the surreal. The rooms of a house are suggested by a framework of slender wooden dowels and these rooms are populated by small carvings: a simple feminine figure, a detailed human backbone, an organic seed-like form and a skeletal bird.

🕰️ 🐜 🦜

'Do You Know What’s Really Surreal?'

…and do you know your Veristic #Surrealism from your Automatist or Organic? @remydean.bsky.social offers a brief introduction to the first major movement in Postmodern #art

👁️ medium.com/signifier/a0...

#ArtHistory #history #painting #sculpture #movies

detail from the left panel showing biomorphic structures and a variety of animals, real and mythical, in a landscape - more description and analysis in article via link in post

🦒 🦁 🦉

'The Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hieronymus Bosch

@remydean.bsky.social explores how #fantasy #art from the first surrealist tells the story of heaven and hell

🥚 medium.com/signifier/ke...

#ArtHistory #illustration #history

illustration by Kae Higuchi for ‘Ghost Story Picture Book: Inside a Mirror’ in which a girl pulls another girl through the surface of a mirror

'Ghosts in Words & Pictures'

@mitsukinonaka.bsky.social takes a peek inside ‘Ghost Story Picture Books’, the popular #Japanese illustrated #horror anthology

ideal #Halloween reading👻

medium.com/signifier/gh...

#Japan #イラスト #art #ArtHistory #horror #illustration

an installation by Yucef Merhi comprises five cathode ray tube television sets, connected to five Atari consoles, the televisions have transparent cabinets that celebrate their function and showcases the beauty of the old analogue technology within they display the message: COMPASSION IS THE DEVINE COMPASS

'The Digital & the Divine'

Since the 1980s, pioneering digital #artist Yucef Merhi has been blurring boundaries between languages, technologies, materials, & meanings… @remydean.bsky.social explores this ever-changing creative terrain

🕹️ medium.com/signifier/th...

#digital #art #retro #gaming

They’re Biting (1920) by Paul Klee: "The painting shows a cartoonish scenario of a boy fishing with his dad. The boy has caught a fish, a larger fish is about to take the hook of the father’s line. Among the symbols for fish we also find two recognisable typographic symbols in the full-stop. And the exclamation mark!" more description and analysis in article via link in post

'Walking the Line (off the page & into the world)'

The playful drawing style of Paul Klee may not have any obvious practical application, yet @remydean.bsky.social tracks how it led to one of the best known products to come out of the Bauhaus.

medium.com/signifier/wa...

#art #design #history

Medium Day 2025: 150+ sessions, workshops, and events to help you ‘Just Start Writing’ Happening live: Friday, September 19, 8 am–8 pm ET

The Signifier has a virtual booth at the Medium Day writing festival ⌨️ medium.com/blog/medium-... ✍️ come'n'see what's write ⬇️

‘Figure libre-parure 1967’ is an abstract painting by Jean-Paul Riopelle. Large canvas with mainly bold black and grey gestural marks with flashes of many other colours. Photographed by Rodrigo S-C for cataloguing purposes.

'Getting to Know Jean-Paul Riopelle'

Rodrigo S-C explores the intentions & interpretations of one of Canada’s most significant twentieth-century artists

🧊 medium.com/signifier/ge...

#art #ArtHistory #painting #history

Robot mask as seen in ‘The Robots of Death’ (1977) designed by Rose Garrard and the ‘Malvhina’ fountain during the 2007 Well-Dressing festival, photographed by Bob Embleton

Our article about artist Rose Garrard, designer of the robots. may be of interest? Her brief from BBC production designer, Ken Sharpe, had been to “create a robot that was so classically beautiful that it would seem sinister...”

🤖 medium.com/signifier/es...

TY @remydean.bsky.social

two classical Japanese prints: ‘Looks Annoying, Mannerisms of a Girl from the Kansei Period’ by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1888) shows a young woman petting a white cat and ‘New Plate of Cats’ Hot Spring’ by Utagawa Yoshifuji (1888) shows anthropomorphised cats running and enjoying a bathhouse...

'Japanese #Kawaii Culture: Small & Adorable Things Reflect Your Heart'

@yuriminamide.bsky.social explores the origins of a soft power built by Japanese artists that now influences the world…

🎀 medium.com/signifier/ja...

#Japan #cats #manga #illustration #イラスト #art #ArtHistory #design

four view of the huge, blood-red inflatable concert hall - two of its cavernous interior and two in situ in parkland, softly glowing in the evening gloaming

Aanish Kapoor x Arata Isozaki 'Ark Nova' concert hall inflated for recent Lucerne Festival - the socially functional sculpture gets a mention in my article @signifier.bsky.social

Kapoor & Me, Now & Then 🎈 medium.com/signifier/ka...

pic via DesignBoom report: www.designboom.com/architecture...

graphic showing 10 thumbnails of various #art #photography #painting #sculpture #illustration from around the world and from different periods - a screencap of the publication landing page...

(almost) every weekend, we update our 'trending' section & feature choice articles from the Signifier archive for newer subscribers to discover - check back often & see what you find:

▶️ medium.com/signifier 👀

follow us on BlueSky for regular free-to-read links to articles on #art #design #media

a comparison between Bruegel’s ‘The Land of Cockaigne’ and an engraving on paper by Pieter Baltens (1560s) - both similarly depicting four men in various stages of languor surrounded by plenty of food - full descriptions and analysis via link in post

🥩 🍗 🍷 🍰

'Bruegel’s Land of Cockaigne’

Samuel Belleville-Douelle delves deep into the #history beyond hedonistic tales of a fantastic land of gluttony & excess depicted in this famous #painting

🥧 medium.com/signifier/br...

#art #ArtHistory #folklore

💔 ❤️‍🩹 💝

'Embracing Tomorrow - 'Deny' by Utaha • 詩羽

@remydean.bsky.social reviewed the potent, heartfelt mini-movie that speaks to teenage loneliness & empowerment.

Here's the link 🦋 medium.com/signifier/de... #music #movie

YouTube video by 詩羽 / Utaha 詩羽「deny」

just over a year ago Utaha released 'Deny' • 詩羽 accompanied by its cinematic video directed by Yûka Eda which @remydean.bsky.social recognised & reviewed as a fine work of narrative #art

🦋 youtu.be/5CeevcMG5Ws?...
#JPop #music #movie #Japan

two images of details from ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ (c.1818) the oil on canvas painting by Caspar David Friedrich: distant misty mountains and some craggy knolls with trees rising from the fog

🌫️ ☁️ 💭

What does the wanderer seek beyond the sea of fog?

Samuel Belleville-Douelle finds meaning in Caspar David Friedrich’s famous Romantic #painting & interprets some surprising symbolism in the details...

🌄 medium.com/signifier/in...

#ArtHistory #art #history #philosophy #landscape

In this sketch of the Vitruvian Man (circa 1490) and its accompanying annotation, Leonardo (di ser Piero) da Vinci expresses the kernel of Renaissance aesthetic and the ideal of the ‘Golden Ratio’.

'We Are the Golden Rule'

Nearly all High Renaissance #architecture, #sculpture & #painting was set out according to the Golden Section, embodied in Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ - @remydean.bsky.social takes a measured approach to the subject:

medium.com/signifier/we...

#art #ArtHistory

black and white photograph of Marcel Duchamp in his Paris studio during the 1930s, standing by his vertical wall-mounted chess set

'Piece Works: Concepts of Chess'

@remydean.bsky.social on the origins and Modern reinterpretations of the imagery of #chess♟️

medium.com/signifier/pi...

#art #ArtHistory #design #games #history