Food for the Soul: Pearls

Food for the Soul: Pearls

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Probably one of the most celebrated paintings that features pearls is one where these jewels are the least

Food for the Soul: I Spy … for America

Food for the Soul: I Spy … for America

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout A few weeks ago, we introduced some new international espionage shows. Two new American spy shows recently got

Food for the Soul: A Year of Vermeer

Food for the Soul: A Year of Vermeer

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout We celebrated the year 2019 as “The Year of da Vinci,” reporting all year long from the groundbreaking

Food for the Soul — I Spy…

Food for the Soul — I Spy…

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout For a cerebrally inclined viewer, spy shows have advantages over regular crime series. There is less gore (all

Food for the Soul: CHARLES I – THE ROYAL CONNOISSEUR OF ART

Food for the Soul: CHARLES I – THE ROYAL CONNOISSEUR OF ART

“Ars longa, vita brevis.” ~ Hippocrates, Aphorismi By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout As the world witnesses a historic change in Great Britain, which welcomes Charles III as the new king (the coronation ceremony

Food for the Soul: Cozy Entertainment

Food for the Soul: Cozy Entertainment

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout During WWII, Hollywood turned away from hard-hitting dramas toward lighter fare—mysteries, comedies, and musicals—resulting in such classics as The Philadelphia Story, The Maltese Falcon, Meet Me in St.

Global Trade in Art, Part 4: THE AMERICAS

Global Trade in Art, Part 4: THE AMERICAS

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout “The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded

Food for the Soul: Guo Pei Exhibition — San Francisco

Food for the Soul: Guo Pei Exhibition — San Francisco

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Art museums sometimes showcase outstanding fashion designs, often presenting historical collections of artists who long ago earned their place in the pantheon of couture. Over the last few

Food for the Soul: Guo Pei Exhibition — San Francisco

Food for the Soul: Guo Pei Exhibition — San Francisco

By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Art museums sometimes showcase outstanding fashion designs, often presenting historical collections of artists who long ago earned their place in the pantheon of couture. Over the last few […]

Paris Exhibitions, Spring 2022

Paris Exhibitions, Spring 2022

After two years, Paris is again full of American tourists. You hear them everywhere—on the streets and in the museums and Metro subway. This means that all the exhibitions I was planning to scout out

Food for the Soul: Faces of Tuscany

Food for the Soul: Faces of Tuscany

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In Florentine museums and churches, there is an endless parade of Madonnas and altar compositions of the Holy Family, which have somewhat lost their religious impact after so

Food for the Soul: Faces of Tuscany

Food for the Soul: Faces of Tuscany

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In Florentine museums and churches, there is an endless parade of Madonnas and altar compositions of the Holy Family, which have somewhat lost their religious impact after so […]

Food for the Soul: Nina’s Euro Blog

Food for the Soul: Nina’s Euro Blog

April 7 … I’m starting my trek through Europe from Warsaw – the epicenter of Poland’s support of the waves of Ukrainian refugees. Close to 2,5 million of them went through Polish borders, either on

Nina’s Euro Blog

Nina’s Euro Blog

Polish Palaces and Art in Naples This post is inspired by the location of a very romantic wedding I recently attended in the center of Poland. Both the wedding ceremony and the party afterwards were […]

Food for the Soul: Lviv National Gallery of Art

Food for the Soul: Lviv National Gallery of Art

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The world is watching bad—and then worse—news coming out of Ukraine every day. Millions of people, even those who last month were not sure where Ukraine actually is,

Food for the Soul: Lviv National Gallery of Art

Food for the Soul: Lviv National Gallery of Art

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The world is watching bad—and then worse—news coming out of Ukraine every day. Millions of people, even those who last month were not sure where Ukraine actually is, […]

Food for the Soul: A Dash to Freedom – Movies

Food for the Soul: A Dash to Freedom – Movies

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout We have selected some good movies and interesting documentaries that explore different aspects of freedom. You could, if you wish, also make your own list of cinematic examples. […]

Food for the Soul: Gideon’s River Test

Food for the Soul: Gideon’s River Test

Gideon. Sketch for a fresco. Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1796). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Photo: Wikimediart.org By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There is a longstanding intellectual debate about whether an individual can change […]

Food for the Soul: How Do You Show Freedom?

Food for the Soul: How Do You Show Freedom?

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “For we fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honors, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.” ~ Declaration of Arbroath, […]

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2  – Out of Africa

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2 – Out of Africa

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout For 15th-century Europeans, sub-Saharan Africa was to a great extent terra incognita until Portuguese explorers started venturing further and further south along the continent’s western coast. These expeditions

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2  – Out of Africa

Food for the Soul: Global Trade Part 2  – Out of Africa

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout For 15th-century Europeans, sub-Saharan Africa was to a great extent terra incognita until Portuguese explorers started venturing further and further south along the continent’s western coast. These expeditions […]

Food for the Soul: Global Trade in Art – Part 1

Food for the Soul: Global Trade in Art – Part 1

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There are bigger world problems than this, but you may have noticed that your favorite sheets are not in stock at Ikea—it is the global trade disruption, compliments

Food for the Soul: Global Trade in Art – Part 1

Food for the Soul: Global Trade in Art – Part 1

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There are bigger world problems than this, but you may have noticed that your favorite sheets are not in stock at Ikea—it is the global trade disruption, compliments […]

Food for the Soul:  Oscar Movie Season

Food for the Soul:  Oscar Movie Season

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The Oscar season in Hollywood is like the Baltic sea after a storm, when crumbs of precious amber are churned up to the surface. Various movies that would

Food for the Soul:  Oscar movie season

Food for the Soul:  Oscar movie season

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The Oscar season in Hollywood is like the Baltic sea after a storm, when crumbs of precious amber are churned up to the surface. Various movies that would […]

Food for the Soul: Art and Cautionary Tales

Food for the Soul: Art and Cautionary Tales

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Art serves many social purposes, such as creating a magic ritual, preserving memories, announcing praise or condemnation, revising history, and (obviously) providing esthetic enjoyment. It’s no wonder, then, […]

Food for the Soul: Good Versus Evil in Art

Food for the Soul: Good Versus Evil in Art

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” ~ Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (1911) By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The struggle […]

Protest in Art

Protest in Art

Poster for the Suffragette movement. Mary Lowndes (1909). Published by Brighton and Hove Women’s Franchise. Artists’ Suffrage League. Photo: Public Domain Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout If an individual stands up […]

Food for the Soul: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Food for the Soul: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Aerial shot of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. ©Academy Museum Foundation By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout It took years of false starts, changes of leadership, delayed construction, and other birthing pains, but […]

Food for the Soul: Dune

Food for the Soul: Dune

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Frank Herbert’s novel Dune was published in 1965, and ever since, entire generations of people all over the world have read the book even if they were not

Food for the Soul: Dune

Food for the Soul: Dune

By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Frank Herbert’s novel Dune was published in 1965, and ever since, entire generations of people all over the world have read the book even if they were not […]

Food for the Soul – The Lust for Travel

Food for the Soul – The Lust for Travel

James Tissot. Ball on Shipboard (1874). Tate Britain. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout While we may be upset by the various pandemic travel restrictions the world is now experiencing, it

Food for the Soul – Georgia O’Keeffe: Women & Art Series 12

Food for the Soul – Georgia O’Keeffe: Women & Art Series 12

Georgia O’Keeffe. Pelvis with the distance (1943). Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newfields, IN. © Indianapolis Museum of Art/Gift of Anne Marmon Greenleaf in memory of Caroline M. Fesler. Photo: Bridgeman Images © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Adagp,

Food for the Soul – Georgia O’Keeffe: Women & Art Series 12

Food for the Soul – Georgia O’Keeffe: Women & Art Series 12

Georgia O’Keeffe. Pelvis with the distance (1943). Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newfields, IN. © Indianapolis Museum of Art/Gift of Anne Marmon Greenleaf in memory of Caroline M. Fesler. Photo: Bridgeman Images © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Adagp, […]

Food for the Soul Audio: Florence

Food for the Soul Audio: Florence

Nina Heyn is Your Culture Scout – the author of the Food for the Soul column and the creator of the Food for the Soul audio. Please click here for Audio.

Food for the Soul: A Postcard from Paris

Food for the Soul: A Postcard from Paris

Damian Hirst. The Triumph of Death Blossom (2018). Private collection© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates. Photo: Courtesy Fondation Cartier By Nina Heyn – Your Culture

Food for the Soul: A Postcard from Paris

Food for the Soul: A Postcard from Paris

Damian Hirst. The Triumph of Death Blossom (2018). Private collection© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2021. Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates. Photo: Courtesy Fondation Cartier By Nina Heyn – Your Culture […]

Food for the Soul – Discreet Charm of Kitchen Gardens

Food for the Soul – Discreet Charm of Kitchen Gardens

Gardeners (Les Jardiniers). Gustave Caillebotte. 1875-1877. Private collection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain. By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Until about the end of WWII, if you lived in a house or at least […]

Food for the Soul – Discreet Charm of Kitchen Gardens

Food for the Soul – Discreet Charm of Kitchen Gardens

Gardeners (Les Jardiniers). Gustave Caillebotte. 1875-1877. Private collection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain. By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Until about the end of WWII, if you lived in a house or at least

Food for the Soul: Artists and the Moneychangers

Food for the Soul: Artists and the Moneychangers

Christ Driving Moneylenders from the Temple. Church of St. Aignan (1899). Chartres, France. Photo: Reinhardhauke Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout If you need to impart important messages to people who cannot […]

Food for the Soul: Artists and the Moneychangers

Food for the Soul: Artists and the Moneychangers

Christ Driving Moneylenders from the Temple. Church of St. Aignan (1899). Chartres, France. Photo: Reinhardhauke Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout If you need to impart important messages to people who cannot

Food for the Soul: Cerca Trova in Florence

Food for the Soul: Cerca Trova in Florence

Florence cathedral. Photo: Nina Heyn By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In 1504, when Leonardo da Vinci was mostly done with living in Florence, he accepted an important commission to decorate Palazzo Vecchio (which […]

Food for the Soul: Cerca Trova in Florence

Food for the Soul: Cerca Trova in Florence

Florence cathedral. Photo: Nina Heyn By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In 1504, when Leonardo da Vinci was mostly done with living in Florence, he accepted an important commission to decorate Palazzo Vecchio (which

Food for the Soul: Kraków, the City of Art

Food for the Soul: Kraków, the City of Art

Rembrandt. Landscape with the Good Samaritan (1638). The Princes Czartoryski Collection, National Museum, Kraków. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Europe has many places that are a perfect combination of art

Food for the Soul: Kraków, the City of Art

Food for the Soul: Kraków, the City of Art

Rembrandt. Landscape with the Good Samaritan (1638). The Princes Czartoryski Collection, National Museum, Kraków. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Europe has many places that are a perfect combination of art […]

Food for the Soul: Rosa Bonheur – Women & Art Series 10

Food for the Soul: Rosa Bonheur – Women & Art Series 10

Édouard Louis Dubufe. Portrait of Rosa Bonheur (the bull was painted by Bonheur) (1857). Versailles Palace. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout, There is a reason why the traditionally dressed Victorian

Food for the Soul: Rosa Bonheur – Women & Art Series 10

Food for the Soul: Rosa Bonheur – Women & Art Series 10

Édouard Louis Dubufe. Portrait of Rosa Bonheur (the bull was painted by Bonheur) (1857). Versailles Palace. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There is a reason why the traditionally dressed Victorian […]

Food for the Soul – New York Big Five – MoMA

Food for the Soul – New York Big Five – MoMA

Marc Chagal I and the Village (1911). MoMA. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the world’s largest contemporary and modern art assemblage,

Food for the Soul – New York Big Five – MoMA

Food for the Soul – New York Big Five – MoMA

Marc Chagall. I and the Village (1911). MoMA. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the world’s largest contemporary and modern art assemblage, […]

Food for the Soul: New York Big Five – The Frick

Food for the Soul: New York Big Five – The Frick

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres – Portrait de Comtesse D’Haussonville (1845). The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: ©The Frick Collection, Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout So many people love the experience of visiting New

Food for the Soul: New York Big Five – The Frick

Food for the Soul: New York Big Five – The Frick

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres – Portrait de Comtesse D’Haussonville (1845). The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: ©The Frick Collection, Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout So many people love the experience of visiting New […]

Food for the Soul – Julie Mehretu – Women & Art Series 8

Food for the Soul – Julie Mehretu – Women & Art Series 8

Julie Mehretu. Stadia II (2004). Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg; gift of Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Nicolas Rohatyn and A.W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund 2004.50. Photo: Courtesy the Carnegie Museum via the Whitney. © Julie

Food for the Soul: Good Versus Evil in Art

Food for the Soul: Good Versus Evil in Art

Statue of St. Michael. 1750. University of Bonn. Photo: Public Domain Wikimedia Commons “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” ~ Joseph Conrad,

Food for the Soul: Cautionary Tales

Food for the Soul: Cautionary Tales

Allegory of Tulip Mania. Jan Breughel the Younger (after 1637). Private collection. Photo: Public Domain Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Art serves many social purposes, such as creating a magic ritual,

Food for the Soul – Money on Canvas

Food for the Soul – Money on Canvas

The Payment of Dues. Georges de la Tour, 1630-35. Lviv Art Gallery, Ukraine (until 1940 – Lwów Art Gallery, Poland), ex Lubomirski collection. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. By Nina Heyn – Your Culture

Food for the Soul: Calder-Picasso. Back to Museums Series 1

Food for the Soul: Calder-Picasso. Back to Museums Series 1

In the center: Alexander Calder. Untitled (mobile-1956) and Untitled (painting-1967). Calder Foundation New York. Photo: Installation view of “Calder-Picasso” at the de Young Museum, photography by Gary Sexton. © 2021 Calder Foundation New York/Artists Rights

Food for the Soul: Calder-Picasso. Back to Museums Series 1

Food for the Soul: Calder-Picasso. Back to Museums Series 1

In the center: Alexander Calder. Untitled (mobile-1956) and Untitled (painting-1967). Calder Foundation New York. Photo: Installation view of “Calder-Picasso” at the de Young Museum, photography by Gary Sexton. © 2021 Calder Foundation New York/Artists Rights […]

Food for the Soul: Olga Boznańska – Women Artists Series 6

Food for the Soul: Olga Boznańska – Women Artists Series 6

Olga Boznańska – Self-Portrait (1908). National Museum, Warsaw. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Even casual museumgoers are familiar with such female artists as Georgia O’Keeffe or Mary Cassatt—celebrated painters whose

Food for the Soul: Olga Boznańska – Women Artists Series 6

Food for the Soul: Olga Boznańska – Women Artists Series 6

Olga Boznańska – Self-Portrait (1908). National Museum, Warsaw. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Even casual museumgoers are familiar with such female artists as Georgia O’Keeffe or Mary Cassatt—celebrated painters whose […]

Food for the Soul: Awards Season – Documentaries

Food for the Soul: Awards Season – Documentaries

Photo credit: jovaughn-stephens/Unsplash photo By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout It’s a sign of the times that documentaries now seem to be more interesting than features. While some feature movies this year focus on

Food for the Soul: Awards Season – Documentaries

Food for the Soul: Awards Season – Documentaries

Photo credit: jovaughn-stephens/Unsplash photo By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout It’s a sign of the times that documentaries now seem to be more interesting than features. While some feature movies this year focus on […]