Incomprehensible pictures. Jan van Eyck "Portrait of the Arnolfinis"

The world is full of creative people and every day hundreds of new paintings appear, new songs are written. Of course, in the world of art, there are some missteps, but there are such masterpieces of real masters that are simply breathtaking! We will show you their work today.

pencil augmented reality

Photo artist Ben Heine continued to work on his project, which is a mixture of pencil drawings and photography. First, he makes a freehand sketch with a pencil on paper. Then he photographs the drawing against the background of a real object and refines the resulting image in Photoshop, adding contrast and saturation. The result is magic!

Illustrations by Alisa Makarova

Alisa Makarova is a talented artist from St. Petersburg. In an age when most of the images are created using a computer, the interest of our compatriot in traditional forms of painting is respected. One of her latest projects is the triptych "Vulpes Vulpes", which shows charming fiery red foxes. Beauty, and more!

Fine engraving

Wood artists Paul Rodin and Valerie Lou have announced the creation of a new engraving entitled "Moth". The painstaking work and exquisite craftsmanship of the authors do not leave indifferent even the most stubborn skeptics. The engraving will be on display at an upcoming exhibition in Brooklyn on November 7th.

Ballpoint pen drawings

Probably, at least once in lectures, instead of writing down the words of the teacher, everyone drew various figures in a notebook. Was the artist Sarah Esteje (Sarah Esteje) among these students is unknown. But the fact that her drawings with a ballpoint pen are impressive is an indisputable fact! Sarah just proved that you don't need to have any special materials at all in order to create something really interesting.

Surrealistic worlds of Artem Chebokha

Russian artist Artem Chebokha creates incredible worlds where only the sea, the sky and endless harmony exist. For his new works, the artist chose very poetic images - a wanderer traveling through unknown places and whales circling in clouds-waves - this master's flight of fantasy is simply limitless.

Spot portraits

Someone thinks about the stroke technique, someone thinks about the contrast of light and shadow, but the artist Pablo Jurado Ruiz draws with dots! The artist developed the ideas of the pointillism genre, which was still inherent in the authors of the neo-impressionism era, and created his own style, where details are everything. Thousands of touches on paper result in realistic portraits that you just want to look at.

Pictures from diskettes

In an era when many things and technologies become obsolete at the speed of an express passing by, quite often you have to get rid of unnecessary rubbish. However, as it turned out, not everything is so sad, and a very modern work of art can be made from old objects. English artist Nick Gentry (Nick Gentry) collected square diskettes from friends, took a jar of paint, and painted stunning portraits on them. It turned out very nice!

On the verge of realism and surrealism

Berlin artist Harding Meyer loves to paint portraits, but in order not to become another hyperrealist, he decided to experiment and created a series of portraits on the verge of reality and surrealism. These works allow us to look at the human face as something more than just a "dry portrait", highlighting its basis - the image. As a result of such searches, Harding's work was noticed by the Gallery of Modern Art in Munich, which will exhibit the artist's work on November 7th.

Finger painting on iPad

Many modern artists are experimenting with materials to create paintings, but the Japanese Seikou Yamaoka outdid them all, taking his iPad as a canvas. He simply installed the ArtStudio application and began not only to draw, but to reproduce the most famous masterpieces of art. Moreover, he does this not with some special brushes, but with his finger, which is admired even by people who are far from the world of art.

"Wooden" painting

Using everything from ink to tea, woodworking artist Mandy Tsung has created truly mesmerizing paintings filled with passion and energy. As the main theme, she chose the mysterious image of a woman and her position in the modern world.

hyperrealist

Every time you find the work of hyperrealist artists, you involuntarily ask yourself the question: “Why are they doing all this?” Each of them has their own answer to this and sometimes a rather contradictory philosophy. But the artist Dino Tomik says bluntly: "I just love my family very much." Day and night he painted and tried not to miss a single detail from the portrait of his relatives. One such drawing took him at least 70 hours of work. To say that the parents were delighted means to say nothing.

Soldier portraits

October 18 at the London gallery Opera Gallery launched an exhibition of works by Joe Black (Joe Black) called "Ways of Seeing". To create his paintings, the artist used not only paints, but also the most unusual materials - bolts, badges and much more. However, the main material was .... toy soldiers! The most interesting exhibits of the exposition are portraits of Barack Obama, Margaret Thatcher and Mao Zedong.

Sensual oil portraits

Korean artist Lee Rim (Lee Rim) was not so famous a couple of days ago, but her new paintings "Girls in Paint" caused a wide response and resonance in the art world. Lee says: “The main theme of my work is human emotions and psychological state. Even though we live in different environments, at some point in time we feel the same when we look at an object.” Perhaps that is why, looking at her work, I want to understand this girl and feel her thoughts.

Artists are imaginative and try to create unusual paintings, bringing uniqueness and diversity to them. Some canvases fascinate and inspire, and some frighten the depicted images.

Venus with a mirror

The canvas was painted by Diego Velazquez during a trip to Italy. This was done secretly, since in Spain at that time it was strictly forbidden to depict a naked figure.

There are many unpleasant stories associated with the work. The first owner was a merchant from Spain, who, after acquiring the masterpiece, suddenly went bankrupt. At first, trade began to go worse, and then more serious troubles occurred: pirates seized goods, ships sank. The merchant began to sell his property in order to recoup the losses and sold the painting. “Venus with a Mirror” was acquired by another person who was also engaged in trade. Almost immediately, his warehouses burned down from a lightning strike. He also sold the painting.

The third owner was stabbed to death in his own home three days later. After, for a long time no one wanted to buy "Venus with a Mirror". The painting moved from one museum to another until a crazy woman named Mary Richardson vandalized it and cut it with a meat cleaver. The canvas was restored and returned to the London National Gallery, where it is located to this day.

scream

Edvard Munch, the author of the work, had a manic-depressive psychosis. He often suffered from depressive disorders, and at night he was tormented by nightmares. On the canvas of Munch, a mystical image of a hairless creature with an open mouth flaunts.

Most critics claim that Edward depicted himself on the canvas. But the artist says something completely different ─ that it's just a "cry of nature." He was walking in the company of friends and saw the sunset, which inspired him to write a strange picture.

If the legend is to be believed, everyone who came into contact with the Scream suffered in one way or another. One museum employee had an accident and another committed suicide.

Rain woman

One of the most unusual paintings in the world was painted by Vinnitsa artist Svetlana Telets in the late 90s of the last century. Before her, she was unknown to anyone. A few months before Tilets began her creation, she began to have visions. Sometimes Svetlana felt that she was being watched from the side. Despite the fact that the artist tried to drive away disturbing thoughts, they appeared again. After some time, Taurus had the idea to paint a portrait of a mysterious woman. She set to work, her hand guided by some invisible force. The portrait was ready in record time - in just five hours.

Months later, there were rumors in the city that a curse was hanging over the painting. All the customers were in a hurry to return it to the art store without even getting their money back. Each of them claimed that the canvas comes to life at night. People began to suffer from headaches and other ailments, they could not sleep.

“Rain Woman” is a very atmospheric and impressive picture. It perfectly combines the background, angle and proportions. Perhaps it is this fact that so affects the emotional state of the owners.

The Last Supper

The canvas depicts the last Easter feast of Jesus Christ and his apostle disciples. It is believed that Christ speaks of the future betrayal of one of his associates. The artist tried to depict the reaction of each student to the spoken phrase. The very name of the picture already speaks of its sacred meaning. Hidden symbols and messages are really traced in the work.

The product was asked to be commissioned by the Duke of Milan. It is known that da Vinci for a long time was looking for sitters for his work. Of particular difficulty was the image of Christ. In the end, he copied him from a young singer from the church choir, who seemed to him the personification of purity and spirituality. The most amazing thing is that after three years, Leonardo found a drunkard in a ditch and painted the image of Judas from him. As it turned out, it was still the same singer. The Last Supper was completed in 1498.

During World War II, a shell hit the church where the work was located. The building was completely destroyed, but the frescoed wall miraculously survived.

Metamorphoses of Narcissus

One of the strangest paintings by Salvador Dali was painted in 1937. This is a beautiful and symbolic work, for which Dali used special paints and brushes. Also, the artist tried a new technique of applying strokes.

The picture shows a guy who admired his beauty. In the foreground, he sits by a pond and admires his reflection, next to him is an image of a stone hand with an egg. The latter is a symbol of rebirth and new life.

Now "Metamorphoses of Narcissus" is in London at the Tate Gallery.

Kiss

The masterpiece was painted by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt using real gold leaf. He worked on its creation for a year. The canvas depicts two lovers embracing in a flowery meadow. There is nothing and no one around, only a golden background.

One version says that the painting was commissioned by a certain count. He wanted to be photographed with his beloved. When the girl saw the painting, she liked it so much that she immediately agreed to become the count's wife. According to the second version, on the Kiss there is an image of Gustav himself and his beloved woman Emilia.

Dance

The picture was painted by Henri Matisse, using only three colors - green, blue and red. It depicts only people frozen in dance, and nature. There are no extra details. The canvas seems to be alive, it conveys vibrations very well.

The dance is distinguished by nobility and fascinates with naturalness. The artist's idea was to capture the moment when a person unites with nature and is overwhelmed with ecstasy.

Water lilies

The landscape is the creation of a talented impressionist of his time, Claude Monet. When he finished working on his work, he decided to celebrate this event with friends. There was a small fire in the artist's studio, which was immediately extinguished. No one attached importance to the incident, but it turned out that the masterpiece carries an invisible fiery phantom.

"Water Lilies" hung in a restaurant located in Montmartre. What is surprising, in just one night the institution burned down. But the picture miraculously survived. It was later bought by art patron Oskar Schmitz. A year after the acquisition, his house also burned down. Moreover, the fire started in the office with the canvas. And again, the masterpiece remained intact and unharmed. The next victim of the landscape is the New York Museum of Modern Art. "Water lilies" were transported to it, and a fire broke out a few months later. The masterpiece was partially charred. After the restoration of the "fire hazardous" properties, the landscape no longer showed.

There are many more interesting paintings written by the most talented artists. There are many creative people in the world who constantly invent and create new unusual works.

Unusual paintings by artists

When a person, for some reason, does not want to rely on traditional ways of creating paintings in his work, then experiments begin. When he is not satisfied with the "realism" in his works, when the works of Leonardo and Boucher seem boring and uninteresting, a new look at art is born. When for him playing with the past becomes a way to look into the future, another art appears. True, sometimes such aspirations cross the border, turning into something far from art, and then the main thing is to surprise with originality.

So, unusual artists, unusual ways of creating paintings and unusual paintings.

I will not talk about artistic value. Each of the listed authors calls himself an artist, a creator. Each of the spectators will determine for himself what is art and what is not, as well as the line beyond which there is already no outrageousness, but there is something incomprehensible.

Red Hong

The author who conquered me with an unusual look at the most ordinary objects or not quite objects. For her, creativity is not limited to paints and brushes, because it is much more interesting to give free rein to fantasy and let it turn into something interesting and alive. And fantasy is such a thing that it can lead to the idea of ​​​​using a coffee cup or a basketball instead of a brush, or you can generally get by with socks.
"When I first visited Shanghai, I stumbled upon an old alley where linen was developing on bamboo sticks sticking out of the windows of houses. It was an incredibly beautiful sight! An amazing thing is such traditions in a modern noisy metropolis. It inspired me to create something unusual from the usual for everyone things in your home area"

Carne Griffiths

And what if, along with the usual colors, use unusual ones? No, not magic, but quite ordinary almost paints, especially if you drop them on a white dress. What if you use tea or brandy as paint, or maybe whiskey or vodka? And the result will be airy, without black spots, full of light lines of work, attracting with a strangely attractive symbiosis of human and natural.

Vinicius Quesada

As they say - Blood is life?: Then the artist Vinicius Quesada put life into his work in the literal sense, because he paints with his own blood. The paintings are strangely attractive in their shades of red.

Jordan Eagles

The works of this artist, who also uses blood, though not his own, but taken at the slaughterhouse, surprise even more. Jordan Eagles creates something frighteningly attractive, especially when you know what and how he creates his work. Using different techniques, he turns the blood itself into an art object.

Jordan McKenzie

Jordan McKenzie went even further, who also creates with liquid from the human body. For his works, he uses canvas, hands and his ... penis. Everything is surprisingly simple - a splash of sperm on the canvas, a little technical processing and the picture is ready. From such creativity is a pleasure and you don’t need the sickening smell of blood, brushes for drawing and even a cup of coffee.

Millie Brown

Millie Brown also spews out liquids, but now they are not entirely natural.

Elisabetta Rogai

But Elisabetta Rogai creates her works from exquisite material - white and red wine. This, it would seem, should limit her color palette, but this does not interfere with her work at all.

Judith Brown

It will be problematic to paint a picture without hands, but what if the hands themselves become a brush and create. What will happen if the fingers become a tool, and ordinary coal dust blooms in a variety of forms and types? And the works of the artist Judith Brown will come out, which in a strange way combine abstract and concrete images.

Doug Landis

And you can draw without hands, like Doug Landis (Doug Landis). After being paralyzed, he began to draw with a pencil in his mouth! And it remains only to envy his fortitude.

Tim Patch

Meet Tim Patch, aka Prickasso, aka penis artist. Why a penisist? And because he draws for them.

Ani Kay

Another person believes that he can create a work of art without using traditional brushes or pencils, and he does not need hands. He is also a supporter of the idea that drawing with hands is boring. Ani Kay decided to draw with his tongue.

Natalie Irish

The kiss, as it turns out, there's a lot we don't know about him. After all, you can create with a kiss, putting your love into what is being created. Actually, this is what the artist Natalie Irish does - she paints with kisses and lipstick.

Kira Ayn Varszegi

You can use your hands, you can use your penis, you can use your lips, but why is the chest not a tool, thought Kira Ein Varzeji and began to create. She paints with her breasts, but being limited by the shape of the breast itself, she creates abstract images, unlike the same Patch, who even manages to create portraits. But Kira has everything ahead! Good luck to her in this difficult field of art.

Stephen Murmer.

Not far behind them and Stephen Murmer, who draws buttocks.

Smeared the fifth point with paint, sat down on the canvas and you're done! And if something is missing, then you can follow the example of the same Patch. And you can generally draw both at once. As they say - cheap and cheerful, although I got excited about cheap - these paintings have a considerable price.

Martin von Ostrowski

“The artist has the right to use materials with the presence of the particle of the author in order to show or prove that he is part of the organic world. The sperm stores my genes, which are essential for the reproduction of a human being, along with the female egg. And in my feces there are microorganisms that live in symbiosis with digested food. So the artist is part of a large complex of innumerable organic world, and in order not to get lost in it, he must leave a tangible mark on the art he creates.

And in the end you can draw yourself

or famous people

or these portraits, using sperm to create.

P/S/ he also has less "amazing" works.

Chris Ofili

Maybe not so original. You can use animal secretions instead of human ones. Here you will like the color of the elephant highlight and take it, use it, no one will say a word across. Moreover, it gives such scope in the choice of shades of brown. What actually fell for Chris Ofili.

Mark Quinn

You can draw with human blood, but you can also make sculptures from it. Frozen. Yes, and from his own. One such portrait takes about 4 liters of blood, if not more.

Val Thompson

But you can draw not only with blood and all sorts of secretions. You can draw by the person himself, or rather by what is left of him after death. Ashes, for example, as Val Thompson does. Artificial diamonds have already been made from the ashes, now you can still draw, all you need is to mix it with paints.

Xiang Chen

Everyone can draw, the main thing is that the eyes are not afraid, but the hands do. But sometimes the eye itself becomes a tool for the creator, in the truest sense of the word. Artist Xiang Chen paints with his eyes using a special tool.

To be continued...

Draw with a knife, chewing gum, tape, nails or fishhooks, words and ribbons, bacteria... there is no barrier to human imagination.

1. "Crying Boy"- painting by the Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolin. There is a legend that the boy's father (who is also the author of the portrait), trying to achieve brightness, vitality and naturalness of the canvas, lit matches in front of the baby's face. The fact is that the boy was afraid of fire to death. The boy was crying - his father was drawing. Once the kid could not stand it and shouted at his father: “You yourself burn!”. A month later, the child died of pneumonia. And a couple of weeks later, the charred body of the artist was found in his own house next to a painting of a crying boy that survived the fire. This could have ended there, but in 1985, British newspapers reported that firefighters found reproductions of the Crying Boy in almost every burned-out building, which the fire did not even touch. 2. "Hands Resist Him"- painting by American artist Bill Stoneham. The author says that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide that can lead the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities. The painting became a well-known urban legend in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory that said the painting was "haunted". According to legend, after the death of the first owner of the painting, the painting was found in a landfill among a pile of garbage. The family that found her brought her home, and already on the first night, a little four-year-old daughter ran into her parents' bedroom screaming that "the children in the picture are fighting." The next night - that "the children in the picture were outside the door." The next night, the head of the family set up a motion-sensing video camera in the room where the painting was hanging. The camcorder worked several times, but nothing was captured. 3. "Rain Woman"- painting by Vinnitsa artist Svetlana Telets. Even six months before the creation of the picture, some visions began to visit her. For a long time it seemed to Svetlana that someone was watching her. Sometimes she even heard strange sounds in her apartment. But I tried to push those thoughts away. And after a while, an idea for a new picture appeared. The image of a mysterious woman was born suddenly, but it seemed to Svetlana that she had known her for a long time. Facial features, as if woven from fog, clothes, ghostly lines of the figure - the artist painted a woman without thinking for a minute. It was as if an invisible force was guiding her hand. A rumor spread around the city that this painting was cursed, after a third buyer returned the painting back a few days later without even taking the money. Everyone who had this picture said that at night it seemed to come to life and walk as a shadow nearby. People began to have headaches, and even after hiding the picture in the closet, the sensations of presence did not go away. 4. During the time of Pushkin, the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky, was one of the main "horror stories". The girl lived a short and unhappy life, and after painting the portrait she died of consumption. Her father, Ivan Tolstoy, was a famous mystic and master of the Masonic Lodge. Therefore, rumors spread that he managed to lure the spirit of the deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the version of salon gossips, the portrait of Mary killed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age ... 5. "Water lilies"- Impressionist landscape by Claude Monet. When the artist and his friends were celebrating the completion of the painting, a small fire broke out in the studio. The flame was quickly filled with wine and did not attach any importance to this. Only a month the picture hung in a cabaret in Montmartre. And then one night the place burned to the ground. But the "Lilies" managed to save. The painting was bought by the Parisian philanthropist Oscar Schmitz. A year later, his house burned down. The fire started from the office, where the ill-fated canvas hung. It miraculously survived. Another victim of Monet's landscape was the New York Museum of Modern Art. The Water Lilies were brought here in 1958. Four months later, it flared up here too. And the damned picture was very charred.
6. In a painting by Edvard Munch "Scream" it depicts a hairless suffering creature with a head resembling an inverted pear, with its hands pressed to its ears in horror and with its mouth open in a silent scream. The convulsive waves of this creature's anguish echo through the air around its head. This man (or woman) seems to be trapped in his own scream-scream and, in order not to hear it, he covered his ears. It would be strange if there were no legends around this picture. It is said that everyone who came into contact with her suffered from evil fate. An employee of the museum, who accidentally dropped the painting, began to suffer from severe headaches and eventually committed suicide. Another employee, who apparently also had crooked hands, dropped the painting and had an accident the next day. Someone even burned down a day after contact with the painting. 7. Another canvas that constantly accompanies trouble is "Venus with a Mirror" Diego Velazquez. The first owner of the painting - a Spanish merchant - went bankrupt, his trade worsened every day, until most of his goods were captured by pirates at sea, and several more ships sank. Selling everything he had under the hammer, the merchant also sold the painting. It was acquired by another Spaniard, also a merchant, who owned rich warehouses in the port. Almost immediately after the money for the canvas was transferred, the merchant's warehouses caught fire from a sudden lightning strike. The owner was broke. And again the auction, and again the painting is sold among other things, and again it is bought by a wealthy Spaniard ... Three days later he was stabbed to death in his own house during a robbery. After that, the painting could not find its new owner for a long time (it had a reputation that was too damaged), and the canvas traveled to different museums, until in 1914 a mad woman cut it with a knife.
8. "Demon Defeated" Mikhail Vrubel had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of the artist himself. He could not tear himself away from the picture, he continued to finish the face of the defeated Spirit and change the color. The "Defeated Demon" was already hanging at the exhibition, and Vrubel kept coming into the hall, not paying attention to the visitors, sat down in front of the picture and continued to work, as if possessed. Relatives were worried about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - a tabes of the spinal cord, near insanity and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help much, and he soon died.

Some works of art seem to hit the viewer on the head, dumbfounded and amazing. Some of them draw you into thought and in search of semantic layers, secret symbolism. Some paintings are covered with secrets and mystical mysteries, and some surprise with an exorbitant price.

Edvard Munch "Scream"

1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel. 91×73.5 cm

National Gallery, Oslo

The Scream is considered a landmark expressionist event and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
“I was walking along the path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature, ”said Edvard Munch about the history of the painting.
There are two interpretations of what is depicted: it is the hero himself who is seized with horror and silently screams, pressing his hands to his ears; or the hero closes his ears from the cry of the world and nature sounding around him. Munch wrote 4 versions of The Scream, and there is a version that this picture is the fruit of a manic-depressive psychosis from which the artist suffered. After a course of treatment at the clinic, Munch did not return to work on the canvas.

Paul Gauguin "Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"

1897-1898, oil on canvas. 139.1×374.6 cm

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A deeply philosophical picture of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was written by him in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. At the end of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide, because "I believe that this canvas is not only superior to all my previous ones, and that I will never create something better or even similar." He lived another 5 years, and so it happened.
At the direction of Gauguin himself, the picture should be read from right to left - the three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title. Three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the final group, according to the artist, "an old woman approaching death seems reconciled and given over to her thoughts", at her feet "a strange white bird ... represents the futility of words."

Pablo Picasso "Guernica"

1937, oil on canvas. 349×776 cm

Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

The huge fresco "Guernica", painted by Picasso in 1937, tells about the raid of the Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the six thousandth city was completely destroyed. The picture was painted in just a month - the first days of work on the picture, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours and already in the first sketches one could see the main idea. This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.
Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, atrocities, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. It is said that in 1940 Pablo Picasso was summoned to the Gestapo in Paris. The conversation immediately turned to the picture. "Did you do that?" “No, you did it.”

Jan van Eyck "Portrait of the Arnolfinis"

1434, oil on wood. 81.8×59.7 cm

London National Gallery, London

The portrait, presumably of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, is one of the most complex works of the Western school of painting of the Northern Renaissance.
The famous painting is completely and completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - up to the signature "Jan van Eyck was here", which turned it not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming a real event that the artist was present at.
In Russia in recent years, the picture has gained great popularity due to the portrait resemblance of Arnolfini with Vladimir Putin.

Mikhail Vrubel "Seated Demon"

1890, oil on canvas. 114×211 cm

Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting by Mikhail Vrubel surprises with the image of a demon. The sad long-haired guy is not at all like the universal ideas of what an evil spirit should look like. The artist himself spoke about his most famous painting: “The demon is not so much an evil spirit as a suffering and mournful one, with all this a domineering, majestic spirit.” This is an image of the strength of the human spirit, internal struggle, doubts. Hands clasped tragically, the Demon sits with sad, huge eyes directed into the distance, surrounded by flowers. The composition emphasizes the constraint of the figure of the demon, as if sandwiched between the upper and lower crossbars of the frame.

Vasily Vereshchagin "The Apotheosis of War"

1871, oil on canvas. 127×197 cm

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Vereshchagin is one of the main Russian battle painters, but he painted wars and battles not because he loved them. On the contrary, he tried to convey to people his negative attitude towards the war. Once Vereshchagin, in the heat of emotion, exclaimed: “I won’t write more battle pictures - that’s enough! I take what I write too close to my heart, cry out (literally) the grief of every wounded and killed. Probably, the result of this exclamation was the terrible and bewitching painting "The Apotheosis of War", which depicts a field, crows and a mountain of human skulls.
The picture is written so deeply and emotionally that behind every skull lying in this pile, you begin to see people, their fates and the fates of those who will no longer see these people. Vereshchagin himself, with sad sarcasm, called the canvas a “still life” - it depicts “dead nature”.
All the details of the picture, including the yellow color, symbolize death and devastation. The clear blue sky emphasizes the deadness of the picture. The idea of ​​the "Apotheosis of War" is also expressed by the scars from sabers and bullet holes on the skulls.

Grant Wood "American Gothic"

1930, oil. 74×62 cm

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

"American Gothic" is one of the most recognizable images in American art of the 20th century, the most famous artistic meme of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The picture with a gloomy father and daughter is overflowing with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrogradeness of the people depicted. Angry faces, a pitchfork right in the middle of the picture, old-fashioned clothes even by the standards of 1930, an exposed elbow, seams on the farmer's clothes that repeat the shape of a pitchfork, and therefore a threat that is addressed to anyone who encroaches. All these details can be looked at endlessly and cringe from discomfort.
Interestingly, the judges of the competition at the Art Institute of Chicago perceived "Gothic" as a "humorous valentine", and the people of Iowa were terribly offended by Wood for portraying them in such an unpleasant light.

Rene Magritte "Lovers"

1928, oil on canvas

The painting "Lovers" ("Lovers") exists in two versions. On one, a man and a woman, whose heads are wrapped in a white cloth, are kissing, and on the other, they “look” at the viewer. The picture surprises and fascinates. With two figures without faces, Magritte conveyed the idea of ​​the blindness of love. About blindness in every sense: lovers do not see anyone, we do not see their true faces, and besides, lovers are a mystery even to each other. But with this seeming clarity, we still continue to look at the Magritte lovers and think about them.
Almost all of Magritte's paintings are puzzles that cannot be completely solved, since they raise questions about the very essence of being. Magritte talks all the time about the deceitfulness of the visible, about its hidden mystery, which we usually do not notice.

Marc Chagall "Walk"

1917, oil on canvas

State Tretyakov Gallery

Usually extremely serious in his painting, Marc Chagall wrote a delightful manifesto of his own happiness, filled with allegories and love. "Walk" is a self-portrait with his wife Bella. His beloved soars in the sky and looks to be dragged into the flight and Chagall, who is standing on the ground precariously, as if touching her only with the toes of his shoes. Chagall has a tit in his other hand - he is happy, he has a tit in his hands (probably his painting), and a crane in the sky.

Hieronymus Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights"

1500-1510, oil on wood. 389×220 cm

Prado, Spain

"The Garden of Earthly Delights" - the most famous triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, which got its name from the theme of the central part, is dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness. To date, none of the available interpretations of the picture has been recognized as the only true one.
The enduring charm and at the same time the strangeness of the triptych lies in the way the artist expresses the main idea through many details. The picture is full of transparent figures, fantastic structures, monsters that have become hallucinations, infernal caricatures of reality, which he looks at with a searching, extremely sharp look. Some scientists wanted to see in the triptych an image of human life through the prism of its vanity and images of earthly love, others - the triumph of voluptuousness. However, the innocence and some detachment with which individual figures are interpreted, as well as the favorable attitude towards this work on the part of the church authorities, make one doubt that the glorification of bodily pleasures could be its content.

Gustav Klimt "Three Ages of Woman"

1905, oil on canvas. 180×180 cm

National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome

"Three Ages of Woman" is both joyful and sad. In it, the story of a woman's life is written in three figures: carelessness, peace and despair. The young woman is organically woven into the ornament of life, the old woman stands out from it. The contrast between the stylized image of a young woman and the naturalistic image of an old woman takes on a symbolic meaning: the first phase of life brings with it endless possibilities and metamorphoses, the last one is an unchanging constancy and conflict with reality.
The canvas does not let go, it gets into the soul and makes you think about the depth of the artist's message, as well as about the depth and inevitability of life.

Egon Schiele "Family"

1918, oil on canvas. 152.5×162.5 cm

Belvedere Gallery, Vienna

Schiele was a student of Klimt, but, like any excellent student, he did not copy his teacher, but was looking for something new. Schiele is much more tragic, strange and frightening than Gustav Klimt. In his works there is a lot of what could be called pornography, various perversions, naturalism and, at the same time, aching despair.
The Family is his latest work, in which despair is taken to the absolute, despite the fact that this is the least strange-looking picture of him. He painted it just before his death, after his pregnant wife Edith died of a Spanish flu. He died at the age of 28 just three days after Edith, having managed to draw her, himself and their unborn child.

Frida Kahlo "The Two Fridas"

The story of the difficult life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo became widely known after the release of the film "Frida" with Salma Hayek in the title role. Kahlo painted mostly self-portraits and explained it simply: “I paint myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the subject that I know best.”
Frida Kahlo does not smile in any self-portrait: a serious, even mournful face, fused thick eyebrows, a slightly noticeable mustache over tightly compressed lips. The ideas of her paintings are encrypted in the details, the background, the figures that appear next to Frida. The symbolism of Kahlo is based on national traditions and is closely connected with the Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period.
In one of the best paintings - "Two Fridas" - she expressed the masculine and feminine principles, connected in her by a single circulatory system, demonstrating her integrity.

Claude Monet Waterloo Bridge. Fog effect»

1899, oil on canvas

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

When viewing the picture from a close distance, the viewer sees nothing but the canvas, on which frequent thick oil strokes are applied. All the magic of the work is revealed when we gradually begin to move away from the canvas to a greater distance. First, incomprehensible semicircles begin to appear before us, passing through the middle of the picture, then, we see the clear outlines of the boats and, having moved a distance of about two meters, all connecting works are sharply drawn and lined up in a logical chain in front of us.

Jackson Pollock "Number 5, 1948"

1948, fiberboard, oil. 240×120 cm

The strangeness of this picture is that the canvas of the American leader of abstract expressionism, which he painted by pouring paint over a piece of fiberboard spread out on the floor, is the most expensive painting in the world. In 2006, at the Sotheby's auction, they paid $ 140 million for it. David Giffen, a film producer and collector, sold it to Mexican financier David Martinez.
“I continue to move away from the usual tools of the artist, such as the easel, palette and brushes. I prefer sticks, shovels, knives and pouring paint or a mixture of paint with sand or broken glass or whatever. When I am inside a painting, I am not aware of what I am doing. Understanding comes later. I have no fear of changing or destroying the image, as the painting has a life of its own. I'm just helping her get outside. But if I lose contact with the painting, it's dirty and messy. If not, then this is pure harmony, the ease of how you take and give.

Joan Miro "Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement"

1935, copper, oil, 23×32 cm

Joan Miro Foundation, Spain

Good title. And who would have thought that this picture tells us about the horrors of civil wars.
The painting was made on a sheet of copper in the week between 15 and 22 October 1935. According to Miro, this is the result of an attempt to portray the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. Miro said that this is a picture about a period of unrest. The painting depicts a man and a woman reaching out for each other's arms, but not moving. The enlarged genitals and ominous colors have been described as "full of revulsion and repugnant sexuality".

Jacek Jerka "Erosion"

The Polish neo-surrealist is known worldwide for his amazing paintings, in which realities come together to create new ones. It is difficult to consider his extremely detailed and to some extent touching works one by one, but such is the format of our material, and we had to choose one - to illustrate his imagination and skill. We recommend to read.

Bill Stoneham "Hands Resist Him"

This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world art, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.
Around the picture with a boy, a doll and palms pressed against the glass, there are legends. From "because of this picture they die" to "the children in it are alive." The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and conjectures in people with a weak psyche.
The artist assured that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide that can lead the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.
The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was listed for sale on eBay with a backstory that said the painting was "haunted". "Hands Resist Him" ​​was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then inundated with letters with creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.