Strange paintings with meaning. Unusual artists and unusual paintings

Man has been drawn to creativity from time immemorial. Beginning with rock paintings mammoths and gods, painted clay vessels, wall frescoes, ending with masterpieces of modern art, which we have the opportunity to admire every day. All painters, in search of the extraordinary, try to bring something unique and diverse to the style. Someone's paying attention to the smallest details, someone is looking for new shades and subjects, but there are a number of unusual artists who decided to surprise the world not only with the help of a brush.

The artist who paints the rain

A few years ago, 30-year-old avant-garde artist Leandro Granato became a real asset to Argentina. The artist invented quite unusual technique applying paint to canvas - through the tear duct. Since childhood, the guy knew how to take water into his nose and immediately spray it out through his eyes.

When inspiration exhausted its resources, Leandro decided to try just such a drawing technique. And I was right. His paintings start at $2,000 and sell out extremely quickly. Interestingly, in order to create one such painting, Granato uses 800 ml of paint for each eye socket. The Argentine even developed a special harmless eye paint, which, according to doctors, does not affect the artist’s health in any way.

Two fingers in your mouth and everything will pass

Millie Brown has lived by the motto “all art has a right to exist” for many years. And all because the artist’s way of painting does not fit into the accepted framework at all.

The girl, no matter how ugly it may sound, draws with vomit. Millie swallows colored soy milk at special intervals and then feels sick. The paint naturally comes out, creating “special designs.” Oddly enough, the artist’s robots are increasingly gaining popularity, and among her devoted fans you can even find Miss Outrageous Lady Gaga herself.

Pictures of size 4 breasts

The American artist Kira Ain Vizerji also became famous for her extravagance. Her prominent breasts help her create paintings that cost at least $1,000 each. The girl became an innovator in this technique and already has dozens of followers around the world. Kira herself explains this strange approach to painting by the fact that her breasts allow her to apply paint from completely different angles and make it easier to realize all the artist’s ideas.

"Penis art"

Another master who uses his body as a tool for painting and earning money is Australian Tim Patch. A shocking artist’s brush is his dignity. Tim himself, without undue modesty, asks to be called “Pricasso” (from the English “prick” - “member”) and positions his work as the first “penis art” in history. In addition to the application technique, the Australian became famous for the fact that while working he wears only a bowler hat, which must be silver or pink.

Nigerian heritage and elephant dung

English creator Chris Ofili is one of the most prominent admirers of Nigerian culture. All his paintings are directly imbued with the spirit of Africa, Nigerian culture, sex and elephant excrement. Ofili uses manure instead of paint. Of course, in order to avoid odors, flies and damaged paintings, the raw materials undergo special chemical treatment, but the fact remains a fact.

"Blues Written in Blood"

The Brazilian painter Vinicius Quesada went even further and shocked the public with a collection of paintings called “Blues Written in Blood.” The latter and in literally words. To create these masterpieces, the artist needed three colors: red, yellow and blue. The first author decided to extract from his own veins.

Every two months, Quezada goes to the hospital, where doctors take 480 milliliters of blood from him to create masterpieces. When fans offer the genius their blood instead of paint, he sends them to blood collection points for the sick, since he believes that donation is more important than art.

underwater art

Kiev resident Oleg Nebesny is one of the few artists in the world who decided to combine his two favorite hobbies: diving and drawing. Oleg paints pictures at a depth of 2 to 20 meters and explains this by the fact that all the beauty underwater world only the eye and only the moment can capture. It takes the artist only 40 minutes to create his works. Before starting, waterproof glue is applied to the canvas (this way the paint is not washed off from the canvas). Among other things, the colors at depth seem completely different. And the brown on the surface can even turn scarlet.

Ashes and painting

Val Thompson crossed all moral taboos. A woman paints beautiful canvases by adding the ashes of cremated people into the paint. Her paintings sell in the thousands, and customers leave rave reviews on websites. The first robot, Val, was created for Anna's neighbor Kiri after the death of her husband John. The canvas depicted a deserted paradise beach, where John most loved to spend time. The painting created such a sensation that Val even opened her own company, Ashes for Art.

Paintings with soul and body

What we consider a real misfortune, Alison Courtson managed to use as material for her creativity. The 38-year-old American paints her paintings with the most common dust. Interestingly, Alison collects material from vacuum cleaners, shelves and closets of the customers themselves. The artist says that she chose such a strange material because house dust consists of 70% skin from the inhabitants of the house. Therefore, we can safely say that her paintings are not only about the soul, but also about the body.

Works of menstrual art

We ask highly impressionable readers to skip the last point of our excursion into unconventional art. Hawaiian artist Lani Beloso suffers from a common disease among women: menorrhagia, in other words, heavy menstruation, and decided to use this phenomenon in her pictures. How she came to this is unknown. At first, the “artist” simply sat over the canvas, and the blood itself painted certain images. Later, Lani began collecting material every month and drawing pictures from it. So the girl created 13 paintings in chronological order, as if showing society how much blood she loses in a year.

The worst thing is that this is not the entire list of people who decided to deviate from the accepted canons. So if you suddenly are an artist and decide to make your contribution to the development of art, I’m afraid you will have a hard time finding original ideas.

1. "Crying Boy"- painting Spanish artist Giovanni Bragolina. 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 deathly afraid of fire. The boy was crying - his father was drawing. One day the kid couldn’t stand it and shouted at his father: “Burn yourself!” A month later, the child died of pneumonia. And a couple of weeks later, the artist’s charred body was found in his own house next to a painting of a crying boy that had survived the fire. It all could have ended there, but in 1985, from the stripes British newspapers There were persistent statements that in almost every burnt room firefighters found reproductions of “ Crying boy"who were not even touched by the fire. 2. "The hands resist him"- painting American artist Bill Stoneham. The author says that the painting depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide who can guide the boy through this world. Hands represent alternative lives or possibilities. The painting became a famous urban legend in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was "haunted." According to legend, after the death of the first owner of the painting, the painting was discovered in a landfill among a pile of garbage. The family that found her brought her home, and already on the first night the little four-year-old daughter ran into her parents’ bedroom shouting 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 installed a motion-sensitive video camera in the room where the painting hung. The video camera worked several times, but nothing was captured. 3. "Rain Woman"- painting by Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets. Even six months before the painting was created, she began to have visions. For a long time Svetlana felt like someone was watching her. Sometimes she even heard strange sounds in her apartment. But I tried to push these thoughts away. And after some time an idea appeared for new painting. The image of the mysterious woman was born suddenly, but Svetlana felt as if she had known her for a long time. Facial features as if woven from fog, clothes, ghostly lines of a figure - the artist painted a woman without thinking for a minute. It was as if her hand was being guided by an invisible force. Rumor spread throughout the city that this painting was cursed after the third buyer returned the painting 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 like a shadow nearby. People began to have headaches and, even after hiding the painting in a closet, the sensation of presence did not go away. 4. During Pushkin’s time, 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 Masonic lodge. That's why rumors spread that he managed to lure the spirit deceased daughter into this portrait. And that if young girls look at the picture, they will soon die. According to the salon gossips, the portrait of Maria destroyed at least ten noblewomen of marriageable age... 5. "Water lilies"- landscape by impressionist Claude Monet. When the artist and his friends were celebrating the completion of the painting, a small fire broke out in the workshop. The flame was quickly doused with wine and they did not attach any importance to it. The painting hung in a cabaret in Montmartre for just a month. And then one night the place burned down. But “Lilies” managed to be saved. The painting was bought by Parisian philanthropist Oscar Schmitz. A year later his house burned down. The fire started in the office, where the ill-fated painting hung. It miraculously survived. Another victim of Monet's landscape was the New York Museum contemporary arts. “Water Lilies” were transported here in 1958. Four months later, there was a fire here too. A damn picture very charred.
6. In a painting by Edvard Munch "Scream" a hairless suffering creature is depicted with a head resembling an inverted pear, with her palms pressed to her ears in horror and her mouth open in a silent scream. The convulsive waves of this creature’s torment, like an echo, disperse in the air around its head. This man (or woman) seems trapped in his own scream and has covered his ears in order not to hear it. It would be strange if there were no legends around this picture. They say that everyone who came into contact with her suffered from an evil fate. A museum employee who accidentally dropped a 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 a day after coming into 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 not captured by pirates at sea, and several more ships sank. Selling everything he had by auction, 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 ruined. And again the auction, and again the painting is sold along with other things, and again a wealthy Spaniard buys it... Three days later he was stabbed to death in own home during a robbery. After that, the painting could not find its new owner for a long time (its reputation was too damaged), and the canvas traveled around different museums, until in 1914 a madwoman cut her up with a knife.
8. "Demon Defeated" Mikhail Vrubel had a detrimental effect on the psyche and health of the artist himself. He couldn’t tear himself away from the picture, he continued to paint the face 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 painting and continued to work, as if possessed. Those close to him became concerned about his condition, and he was examined by the famous Russian psychiatrist Bekhterev. The diagnosis was terrible - tabes spinal cord, near madness and death. Vrubel was admitted to the hospital, but the treatment did not help, and he soon died.

Painting, if we do not take into account the realists, has always been, is and will be strange, metaphorical, seeking new forms and means of expression. But there are a number of paintings whose strangeness cannot leave anyone indifferent.
Some works of art seem to hit the viewer over the head, stunning and amazing; some draw you into thought and in search of layers of meaning, secret symbolism. Some paintings are shrouded in mystery and mystical riddles, and some surprise you with an exorbitant price.

10 strangest paintings in the world

1. Edvard Munch "The Scream"

1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel. 91×73.5 cm
National Gallery, Oslo

Leaving many people with a very unpleasant aftertaste and even a frightening picture, “The Scream” is perhaps one of the strangest pictures in the world.

"Scream" counts significant event expressionism and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
“I was walking along a 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 fiord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling an endless scream piercing nature,” Edvard Munch said about the history of the painting.

2. Paul Gauguin “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"
1897-1898, oil on canvas. 139.1×374.6 cm
Museum fine arts, Boston

Deep philosophical picture post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was painted in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. Upon completion of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide, because he believed: “I believe that this painting not only surpasses all my previous ones, but that I will never create something better or even similar.”

3. Pablo Picasso “Guernica”
1937, oil on canvas. 349×776 cm
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

You don't have to be an expert in art to see a lot of pain in this not-at-first-look strange painting. The huge fresco painting “Guernica,” painted by Picasso in 1937, tells the story of a raid by a Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the city of six thousand was completely destroyed. The painting was painted literally in a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours, and already in the first sketches one could see main idea. This is one of best illustrations the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.

4. Jan van Eyck “Portrait of the Arnolfini couple”
1434, wood, oil. 81.8×59.7 cm
London National Gallery, London

At first glance, the picture does not give the impression of a strange and incomprehensible work, but it makes viewers freeze and peer.

The portrait supposedly of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife is one of the most complex works Western school of painting of the Northern Renaissance.
The famous painting is completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - right down to the signature “Jan van Eyck was here”, which turned it not just into a work of art, but into historical document, confirming a real event at which the artist was present.

5. Mikhail Vrubel “The Seated Demon”
1890, oil on canvas. 114×211 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The strangeness of this picture primarily lies in the unexpected image of the demon. The sad long-haired guy doesn’t at all resemble the common human idea of ​​what he should look like evil spirit. The artist himself spoke about his most famous painting: “The demon is not so much an evil spirit as a suffering and sorrowful one, at the same time a powerful, majestic spirit.”

6. Vasily Vereshchagin “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. One day Vereshchagin, in the heat of emotion, exclaimed: “More battle paintings I won’t write - that’s it! I take what I write too close to heart, I cry (literally) for the grief of every wounded and killed.” Probably the result of this exclamation was the terrible and strangely fascinating painting “The Apotheosis of War,” which depicts a field, crows and a mountain of human skulls.

7. 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 XX century, the most famous artistic meme of the XX and XXI centuries. The strangeness of the picture immediately catches the eye. The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted. Angry faces, a pitchfork right in the middle of the picture, clothes that are old-fashioned even by 1930 standards, an exposed elbow, seams on a farmer’s clothes that repeat the shape of a pitchfork, and therefore a threat that is addressed to everyone who encroaches on them. You can look at all these details endlessly and shrink from discomfort.

8. René Magritte “Lovers”
1928, oil on canvas

The painting “Lovers” (“Lovers”) exists in two versions. In one, a man and a woman, whose heads are wrapped in a white cloth, kiss, and in 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, do not see them true faces and the audience, and besides, the lovers are a mystery even to each other.

9. 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 is soaring in the sky and will soon drag Chagall, who is standing on the ground precariously, into flight, as if touching her only with the toes of his shoes. Chagall has a tit in his other hand - he is happy, he has both a tit in his hands (probably his painting) and a pie in the sky.

10. Hieronymus Bosch"Garden earthly pleasures»
1500-1510, wood, oil. 389×220 cm
Prado, Spain

“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is the most famous triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, which got its name from the theme of the central part, dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness. To date, none of the available interpretations of the painting has been recognized as the only correct one.
The enduring charm and at the same time strangeness of the triptych lies in the way the artist expresses the main idea through many details.

Italian scientists say they have found remains that may belong to Lisa del Giocondo. Perhaps the secret of the Mona Lisa will be revealed. In honor of this, let's remember the most mysterious paintings in history.

1. Gioconda
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to mysterious paintings, or about mystery paintings - this is the “Mona Lisa”, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1505. Gruye wrote that this picture can drive anyone crazy who, having looked at it enough, begins to talk about it.
There are many “mysteries” in this work of da Vinci. Art critics write dissertations on the tilt of the Mona Lisa's hand, medical specialists make diagnoses (from the fact that Mona Lisa has no front teeth to the fact that Mona Lisa is a man). There is even a version that Gioconda is a self-portrait of the artist.
By the way, the painting gained particular popularity only in 1911, when it was stolen by the Italian Vincenzo Peruggio. They found him using his fingerprint. So “Mona Lisa” also became the first success of fingerprinting, and a huge success in marketing the art market.

2. Black square


Everyone knows that the “Black Square” is not actually black, nor is it a square. It's really not a square. In the catalog for the exhibition, it was stated by Malevich as a “quadrangle”. And really not black. The artist did not use black paint.
It is less known that Malevich considered “Black Square” his best work. When the artist was buried, “Black Square” (1923) stood at the head of the coffin, Malevich’s body was covered with a white canvas with a sewn square, a black square was also painted on the lid of the coffin. Even the train and the back of the truck had black squares on them.

3. Scream

What is mysterious about the painting “The Scream” is not that it supposedly has a heavy influence on people, forcing them to almost commit suicide, but that this painting is essentially realism for Edvard Munch, who at the time of writing this masterpiece suffered from manic depression. depressive psychosis. He even recalled exactly how he saw what he wrote.
“I was walking along a 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 fiord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature.”

4. Guernica


Picasso painted Guernica in 1937. The painting is dedicated to the bombing of the city of Guernica. They say that when Picasso was called to the Gestapo in 1940 and asked about Guernica: “Did you do this?”, the artist replied: “No, you did this.”
Picasso painted a huge fresco in no more than a month, working 10-12 hours a day. “Guernica” is considered a reflection of the horror of fascism and inhuman cruelty. Those who have seen the picture with their own eyes claim that it creates anxiety and sometimes panic.

5. Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan


We all know the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan,” usually calling it “Ivan the Terrible kills his son.”
Meanwhile, Ivan Vasilyevich’s murder of his heir is a very controversial fact. So, in 1963, the tombs of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Research has made it possible to claim that Tsarevich John was poisoned.
The poison content in his remains is many times higher than permissible norm. Interestingly, the same poison was found in the bones of Ivan Vasilyevich. Scientists have concluded that royal family has been a victim of poisoners for several decades.
Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son. This is precisely the version adhered to, for example, by the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. Having seen at the exhibition famous painting Repin, he was outraged and wrote to the emperor Alexander III: “You can’t call the picture historical, since this moment... is purely fantastic.” The version of the murder was based on the stories of the papal legate Antonio Possevino, who can hardly be called a disinterested person.
There was once a real assassination attempt on the painting.
On January 16, 1913, twenty-nine-year-old Old Believer icon painter Abram Balashov stabbed her three times, after which Ilya Repin had to virtually paint the faces of the Ivanovs depicted in the painting anew. After the incident, the then curator of the Tretyakov Gallery Khruslov, having learned about the vandalism, threw himself under the train.

6. Hands resist him


The painting by Bill Stoneham, painted in 1972, became famous, frankly, not the most good fame. According to information on E-bay, the painting was found in a landfill some time after its purchase. On the very first night that the painting ended up in the house of the family that found it, the daughter ran to her parents in tears, complaining that “the children in the painting are fighting.”
Since that time, the painting has had a very bad reputation. Kim Smith, who bought it in 2000, constantly receives angry letters demanding that the painting be burned. The newspapers also wrote that ghosts sometimes appear in the hills of California, like two peas in a pod like the children from Stoneham’s painting.

7. Portrait of Lopukhina


Finally, the “bad picture” - the portrait of Lopukhina, painted by Vladimir Borovikovsky in 1797, after some time began to have notoriety. The portrait depicted Maria Lopukhina, who died shortly after the portrait was painted. People began to say that the picture “takes away one’s youth” and even “takes one to the grave.”
It is not known for certain who started such a rumor, but after Pavel Tretyakov “fearlessly” acquired the portrait for his gallery, talk about the “mystery of the painting” subsided.

Painting, if you do not take into account the realists, has always been, is and will be strange. But some paintings are stranger than others.

There are works of art that seem to hit the viewer over the head, stunning and amazing.

Bright Side carefully reviewed all the main achievements in world painting and selected from them two dozen of the strangest paintings. We deliberately did not include Salvador Dali in this collection, whose works completely fall within the format of this material and are the first to come to mind.

It is clear that “strangeness” is a rather subjective concept and everyone has their own amazing paintings that stand out from other works of art. We will be glad if you share them in the comments and tell us a little about them.

"Scream"

Edvard Munch. 1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel.

National Gallery, Oslo.

The famous painting is completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - right down to the signature “Jan van Eyck was here”, which turned the painting not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming the reality of the event at which the artist was present.

The portrait, supposedly of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, is one of the most complex works of the Western school of Northern Renaissance painting.

In Russia, in the last few years, the film has gained great popularity thanks to portrait resemblance Arnolfini with Vladimir Putin.

"Demon Seated"

Mikhail Vrubel. 1890, oil on canvas.

The painting by Mikhail Vrubel surprises with the image of a demon. His sad appearance is not at all similar to the universal human idea of ​​​​what an evil spirit should look like.

This is an image of the strength of the human spirit, internal struggle, doubt. Tragically clasping his hands, the Demon sits surrounded by flowers, looking into the distance. The composition emphasizes the tightness of his figure, as if squeezed between the upper and lower crossbars of the frame.

The artist himself spoke about his most famous painting: “The demon is not so much an evil spirit as a suffering and sorrowful one, at the same time a powerful, majestic spirit.”

"Apotheosis of War"

Vasily Vereshchagin. 1871, oil on canvas.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

The metaphor of war in the film is conveyed by the author so accurately and deeply that behind each skull lying in this pile, you begin to see people, their destinies and the destinies of those who will never see these people again. Vereshchagin himself sarcastically called the canvas a “still life” - it depicts “dead nature.” All the details of the picture, including the yellow color, symbolize death and devastation. Clear blue sky emphasizes the deadness of the picture. The idea of ​​the “Apotheosis of War” is also expressed by scars from sabers and bullet holes on skulls.

Vereshchagin is one of the main Russian battle painters, but he painted wars and battles not because he saw beauty and greatness in them. On the contrary, the artist tried to convey to people his negative attitude towards the war.

One day, Vereshchagin, in the heat of emotion, exclaimed: “I won’t paint any more battle paintings - that’s it! I take what I write too close to my heart, I cry (literally) for the grief of every wounded and killed.” Probably the result of this exclamation was the terrible and bewitching picture “The Apotheosis of War”.

"American Gothic"

Grant Wood. 1930, oil. 74 x 62 cm.

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

The picture with gloomy images of father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted. Angry faces, pitchforks right in the middle of the picture, old-fashioned clothes even by the standards of 1930, seams on the farmer’s clothes, repeating the shape of a pitchfork, as a symbol of the threat that is addressed to everyone who encroaches. The canvas is full of gloomy details that make you cringe with discomfort.

“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.

Interestingly, the judges of the competition at the Art Institute of Chicago perceived "Gothic" as a "humorous valentine", and the residents of Iowa were terribly offended by Wood for portraying them in such an unpleasant light.

"Lovers"

Rene Magritte. 1928, oil on canvas.

The painting "Lovers" ("Lovers") exists in two versions. On one canvas, a man and a woman, whose heads are wrapped in a white cloth, kiss, 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 despite this apparent clarity, we still continue to look at Magritte’s 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 existence. Magritte always talks about the deceptiveness of the visible, about its hidden mystery, which we usually do not notice.

"Walk"

Marc Chagall. 1917, oil on canvas.
State Tretyakov Gallery.

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 leading 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.”

In not a single self-portrait does Frida Kahlo smile: a serious, even mournful face, fused thick eyebrows, a barely noticeable mustache above tightly compressed lips. The artist’s ideas are encrypted in the details, background, and figures that appear next to the author’s image on the canvases. Kahlo's symbolism is based on national traditions and is closely related to the Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period.

In one of their best paintings“Two Fridas” she expressed the masculine and feminine principles, connected in her by a single circulatory system and demonstrating her integrity.

"Waterloo Bridge. Fog effect"

Claude Monet. 1899, oil on canvas.
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Good name. And who would have thought that this work tells us about the horrors of civil wars.

The painting was made on copper sheet during the week between October 15 and October 22, 1935. According to Miro, this is the result of an attempt to depict a tragedy Civil War in Spain, the picture is about a period of anxiety. The canvas depicts the figures of a man and a woman reaching out to embrace each other, but not moving. The enlarged genitals and sinister colors were described by the author as "full of disgust and disgusting sexuality."

"Erosion"

The Polish neo-surrealist is known throughout the world for his amazing paintings, in which realities unite, creating ever new ones. It is difficult to consider his extremely detailed and to some extent touching works one by one, but this is the format of our material. We recommend that you read it.

"The hands resist him"

Bill Stoneham. 1972.

This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.

There are legends surrounding the painting with a boy, a doll and his hands pressed against the glass. From “people are dying because of this picture” to “the children in it are alive.” The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and speculation among people with weak psyches.

The artist insisted that the painting depicted himself at the age of five, that the door represented the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll was a guide who could guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.

The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was "haunted." "Hands Resist Him" ​​was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters from creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.