Nina’s Blog 2023: Stones of Florence
June 10, 2023 By Nina Heyn, Like all of Italy, except a bit more so, Florence is all about stone. Green and white marble bricks …
June 10, 2023 By Nina Heyn, Like all of Italy, except a bit more so, Florence is all about stone. Green and white marble bricks …
“I love that he (Vermeer) leaves the interpretation up to you—you can tell yourself whatever story you want.” ~ Nina Heyn By Catherine Austin Fitts …
“As his paintings are generally considered the most prized treasures of every museum collection, Vermeer paintings are rarely lent out.”~ The Rijksmuseum on Johannes Vermeer …
Rembrandt. Minerva in Her Study, 1635. Oil on canvas. The Leiden Collection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout While many art …
Johannes Vermeer. The Milkmaid, 1658-1659. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam By Nina Heyn — …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Probably one of the most celebrated paintings that features pearls is one where these jewels are the least …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Even though most of the artists I admire are from the 20th century—from David Hockney to Leonora Carrington, …
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Even before Roman soldiers started building and then marching on the roads of the empire, expanding the imperial …
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout A few weeks ago, we highlighted a few early and interesting contenders for the Best Picture crown at …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout A few weeks ago, we introduced some new international espionage shows. Two new American spy shows recently got …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout We celebrated the year 2019 as “The Year of da Vinci,” reporting all year long from the groundbreaking …
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout This year, there are hardly any choices of theatrical films to qualify for Best Picture nominations. Current leading …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout For a cerebrally inclined viewer, spy shows have advantages over regular crime series. There is less gore (all …
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Continue reading. . . .
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Colder autumn evenings are a perfect excuse for sitting in front of a smaller screen. There are hundreds …
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 […]
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Even if Venice itself is not in the Middle East, until the early 1500s the Venetian empire, built on trade with Asia and the Levant, extended far beyond […]
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout In recent years, exhibitions of women’s art have gained so much popularity that almost every week there is a local exhibition somewhere in the world. Predictably, the most […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Nina Heyn — Your Culture Scout Paris at the end of the 19th century was packed with sophisticated men who loved art. They were making it, discussing it, and selling it. There were those […]
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, […]
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. […]
The Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam. Lieve Verschuier (1680). Rotterdam Historic Museum. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain “As above, so below.” ~ Hermes Trismegistus (6th century AD) By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout A […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout There are some languages, like German, Polish, and Latin, that have many grammatical cases (so-called declensions) and three genders. You must know exactly what you are going to […]
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 […]
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout March 18, 1990 was the St. Patrick’s Day holiday in Boston. The streets were full of revelers, and the police had their hands full with traffic control. Two […]
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 […]
Robert Henri. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1916). Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout In a press release issued in 1930, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney announced that she was […]
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 […]
Valentin Serov. Portrait of the Collector of Modern Russian and French Paintings, Ivan Abramovich Morozov (1910). The State Tretiakov National Gallery, Moscow. © Tretiakov National Gallery, Moscow By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Paris […]
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, […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Magdalena Abakanowicz. Abakan Orange (1971). Jankilevitsch Collection. Photo: Marcin Koniak/Desa Unicum, Courtesy of National Museum Poznań By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “Art does not solve problems but makes us aware of their existence. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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.
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 […]
Barbara Hepworth. Sphere with Inner Form (1963). Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives, UK. Photo: image (c)2003 Graham Rogers at Wikipedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Imagine that you are a mother of […]
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 […]
Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street, the Rainy Day / Rue de Paris, temps du pluie (1877). Art Institute of Chicago. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Impressionism owes a huge debt to Gustave Caillebotte but hardly anyone today knows […]
Serge Attukwei Clottey. The Wishing Well. 2021 installation at James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Photo: Nina Heyn. By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout California is one of the last […]
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 […]
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Self-Portrait (1791). National Trust, Ickworth House, UK. Photo: Wikimedia Commons By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout When we think of the French upper classes just before the French Revolution, what […]
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 […]
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 […]