Black & White art

Some of Vito Acconci’s most influential performances

Performances, Video Art / 5 minutes of reading

Who was Vito Acconci? Vito Acconci is one of the most influential American artists. He was a poet, an architect, and a pioneer of performance art. Acconci is commemorated in art history for his artworks, including the ones we are going to discuss in this article. Influence His artwork involved crossing the boundaries, including the …

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Keith Arnatt’s Self Burial – Watch this artist disappear

Performances, Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Keith Arnatt (1930-2008) is renowned for his conceptual work. Arguably, his most well-known and recognizable work is titled Self Burial (1969). Self Burial Self Burial is a series of nine photographs, with each depicting Arnatt seemingly disappearing into a hole dug on the ground. Anyone watching the series would conclude that Arnatt is committing …

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Garry Winogrand’s Women are beautiful – 50 years later

Photography, Street photography / 7 minutes of reading

New York native born Garry Winogrand (b. 1928) is known to be the pioneer of street photography. In his Women are Beautiful series, he walked the streets of the United States and captured women in photography. The photographs were in quick and precise timing and through different angles. Winogrand picked the right period for …

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Artist Richard Long’s groundbreaking A line made by walking

Environmental Art, Mixed media / 4 minutes of reading

The photograph reveals a straight line receding towards tall bushes and trees. It is a straight line of trampled grass that appears in a field. Below the image, the writing says A Line Made By Walking and England 1967. The whole artwork is a documentation of Richard Long’s land artwork. It documents his work: …

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Sebastião Salgado’s Salt of the Earth – Why you should watch it

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian born documentary photographer. He is also a photojournalist who has traveled to about 120 countries to pursue his passion: photography. Salgado was raised in Brazil by middle-class parents and later studied economics. He was then involved in student protests against the military dictatorship, and hence he had to flee …

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The magic in Thomas Ruff’s Star photos

Photography / 4 minutes of reading

Thomas Ruff was obsessed with stars from an early age. Stars light up the dark sky and have been an object of human curiosity since the beginning of time. There is no denying their beauty, but one can simply not capture all this permanently and adequately. Thomas Ruff took this as a challenge and …

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Cindy Sherman’s Bus Riders – The story behind

Photography / 4 minutes of reading

We all must have experienced a different type of people at bus stops. Bus stops might have the most variety of human beings in any city. Starting from the rich, poor, punks, students, old, housewives, workers, and a lot more. Cindy Sherman observed these people and wanted to capture this diversity. In this series …

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Diane Arbus’ iconic Twins photo – What is the story behind it?

Photography / 5 minutes of reading

This iconic photo by Diane Arbus has been described in many different ways: Artistic, freakish, creepy or haunting. The photographer, however, called it differentness in identicalness’. Many people have different takes on this iconic photo and the meaning behind it. The eye of the beholder defines the art and the form that it takes; …

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Shirin Neshat & her iconic Speechless photo

Photography / 4 minutes of reading

Background Through the course of her very illustrious career, internationally celebrated artist Shirin Neshat has covered an array of themes in film, video, and photography. Her works cover several themes, including politics in Muslim nations, issues of gender equity and disparity, identity, as well as the link between the personal and the political. As a …

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Joseph Beuys - I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974, installation view, Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler (Every human is an artist), K20, Düsseldorf, 2021 feat

Joseph Beuys locked in with a Coyote – I like America

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading

In the work of Joseph Beuys dubbed I Like America and America Likes Me, the artist is on a mission to illustrate that it is possible for human beings to coexist with nature. In this project of 1974, the artist is inspired by the belief that the union between men and nature must be …

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Santiago Sierra’s Tattoo Lines – Paying prostitutes with drugs (SFW)

Tattoos / 3 minutes of reading

In a video recording of the process of drawing a tattoo on the back of four women, the documentation by an artist, Santiago Sierra, has a far deeper meaning. The event took place in Salamanca, Spain, in 2000. From the artist’s explanation, the four women are prostitutes and addicted to her. Their pay for …

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Richard Mosse’s Incoming – A military-grade camera & Migrants

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Art pieces inspired by war As sad and as unfortunate as it may sound, war has the uncanny capacity to spawn an overflow of artistic output. The installations and exhibitions that come out of war throw new light on the motivation for conflict and the responses to conflict by soldiers. Art pieces inspired by war …

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Sebastião Salgado’s Exodus – The stories of global migration

Photography / 5 minutes of reading

Sebastião Salgado & Migration Six years. That is the amount of time Sebastião Salgado spent capturing the story of migration, the migrant crisis, individual heart-stopping moments in the never-ending migration and exile of humans. Exodus is a poignant collection that adds photographic evidence and storytelling of humanity on the move. When he started this documentation …

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Who are Roger Ballen’s Twins? Everything you should know

Photography / 6 minutes of reading

Who is Roger Ballen? Roger Ballen is often described as one of the most prolific photographic artists of the 21st century, with his works spanning over 40 years. His strange and extreme images are often created to confront the audience and challenge them to join the artist on a journey into their own psyche as …

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What is Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Theaters photography project all about?

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Hiroshi Sugimoto biography Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in 1948 in Tokyo but later moved to Los Angeles to pursue photography at the Art Centre College of Design. He settled in New York, where he soon began his study of conceptual photography. Over the years, Hiroshi Sugimoto has become one of the most critically acclaimed artists …

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Salt-of-the-Earth-by-Sebastiao-Salgado-Serra-Pelada-State-of-Para-Brazil-1986-feat

Sebastião Salgado’s dramatic Workers photos – Overworked & underpaid

Photography / 4 minutes of reading

The Story in Sebastiao Salgado’s workers Sebastiao Salgado’s workers is an exceptional photography series and book thanks to its detail in men at work in the lowest levels and harshest conditions. His work shows solidarity with the world’s most poor societies. He seeks to recognize and appreciate the isolated peasants and refugees who represent a …

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Sebastião Salgado’s impressive photos: This was Brazil’s largest & most dangerous gold mine

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Salgado’s Serra Pelada Serra Pelada is a series of photographs taken in 1986 depicting endless numbers of mine workers distributed on various parts of a tall gold mining cliff. The black and white photos were taken from a distance and at an elevated vantage point by photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Because of the location and the …

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Andy-Warhol-Thirteen-Most-Wanted-Men-No.-11-John-Joseph-H.-Jr.-1964-Photo-Axel-Schneider-feat

Andy Warhol’s scandalous 13 Most Wanted Men: Destroyed within days

Installations, Murals, Paintings, Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Andy Warhol commissioned to create his first and only public art piece Pop provocateur Andy Warhol was never a stranger to controversy. In 1964, as part of a series of commissions for the New York State Pavilion, Warhol was commissioned to work on an installation displayed on the face of the pavilion, which was to …

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Shirin Neshat’s Book of Kings captures the faces of the Arab Spring riots

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

The Gladstone Gallery and the Faurschou Foundation in Beijing, China are just some of the art spaces that have had the pleasure of exhibiting Shirin Neshat’s The Book of Kings. The exhibition consisted of a total of 56 black and white photos framed in unmated and black frames that were hung across the two …

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Shirin Neshat’s Rapture – Veiled women in their traditional Islamic attire

Performances, Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Rapture is a projection of black and white video where Iranian artist Shirin Neshat gives a narrative that concerns the differences between Muslim women and men. Neshat has used the video projection to explore the cultural and social role of women in the Islamic World and shot the work in Morocco with a cast …

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Why did Ai Weiwei break this million-dollar Han Dynasty vase?

Performances / 4 minutes of reading

Ai Weiwei’s desire to court controversy Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn as an artwork is brilliant and a work of total ingenuity, but in between the lines, it says a lot about the artist: his desire to court controversy. The return of Ai Weiwei to China after living in New York City for more than …

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