iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

It posted before I was able to get the rest in, and as you know we don't have the ability to edit. It's posted in the comments.

110 1

Feininger decomposes the Baltic coast and sea into transparent, prismatic geometric planes, sails, and architectural structures. Aesthetics: The painting combines a luminous palette with sharp, crystal-like brushwork, often compared in structure to a musical fugue.

141 4

Leonora Carrington : Solar Megalomania, 1957 Oil on cardboard 4.7 × 3.1 in | 12 × 7.8 cm Further description in the alt text 👇

The Central Figure:
The painting depicts a stylized, enigmatic figure riding a white horse. The figure is clad in a vibrant purple cloak or garment with contrasting red trousers.

The Face:
In place of a human face, the character features a striking, glowing sun-like visage—a literal manifestation of the "solar" motif in the title.

The Weapon:
The rider holds a curved blade or scimitar in one hand, raised in a dynamic posture that suggests a ritualistic march, an otherworldly crusade, or a mythical journey.

The Atmosphere:
True to her work in the late 1950s, the background is highly textured, murky, and ethereal. It balances a folk-art or medieval manuscript aesthetic with a deeply psychological, dreamlike atmosphere.

Symbolic Context
In Carrington’s wider iconography, horses are frequently used as surrogates for the self, rebirth, and freedom, a motif that dates back to her early famous self-portraits. By crowning the rider with a blazing sun, the painting plays on the idea of megalomania (delusions of grand power or omnipotence), reinterpreting it through an alchemical and mythological lens. Rather than a political or destructive ego, the figure appears as a cosmic, solitary sovereign crossing an unconscious landscape.

17027 70

Lyonel Feininger : Silent Day by Sea III, 1929 Oil on canvas 49 × 36 cm | 19.3 × 14.2 in The painting depicts a serene, minimalist coastal scene featuring two small sailing ships gliding across calm waters. Further description in the alt text 👇

523954 239

Jean Bad Moccasin : Kiva-step vase, 1993 Artist of the Lakota Sioux Nation

08819 88

phoenixrising @mmcarthur.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Isamu Noguchi : Lunar Landscape, 1943-44 Sculpture Magnesite cement, cork, fishing line, electric lights, acetate, and wood 34.5 × 24.75 × 7-7/8 inches 87.5 x 62.8 x 20 cm including mount: .5 in | 1.3 cm Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

0247 24

“Art doesn’t have to talk about politics to be political or to change the world. Artists are here to open us, to make us feel more in touch with others and connected and empathetic. That’s what art does.” ~ Jehnny Beth from Savages Jim Jarmusch 📸 : Vittorio Zunino Celotto Jim's quote below 👇

“I wanted to read you a quote I really like. You know Jehnny Beth from Savages? I like her attitude, her music. I wrote this quote down a couple of weeks ago. She said in an interview, “Art doesn’t have to talk about politics to be political or to change the world. Artists are here to open us, to make us feel more in touch with others and connected and empathetic. That’s what art does.” I was like, Gee, I wish I’d said that. I wasn’t prepared for the Golden Lion in Venice at all. It was quite surprising, so I didn’t really have a speech prepared, but I had read this quote a few days earlier and I paraphrased it a little bit. So, I agree that everything is political in a sense, as Godard said. To not directly talk about politics does not mean something isn’t political. But for me, the political thing is to protect empathy in a way. The last time I saw Joe Strummer, it was like five weeks before we lost him. He was in New York. He walked me back to my home from a restaurant because I had the flu or something. He stopped at my door and looked me in the eye, and I’ll never, ever forget this. I repeated it recently. He said, “Jim, our job is to protect empathy at all costs, and to live groovy lives.” And then he left into the rain and he died five weeks later that summer. Next time I saw him was at his funeral in London in a coffin. I’ve been trying to live by that. “Protect empathy at all costs. And to live groovy lives.” I’m trying to do both. I’m trying to enjoy the strangeness of my life, but I am trying in my work to protect empathy.”

—Jim Jarmusch to Bilge Ebiri in Vulture

Photograph by Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto

2215 21

Happy 100th Birthday to Winnie-the-Pooh 🎂 created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Milne based the character on his son, Christopher Robin, and the boy's stuffed animals. The name "Winnie" came from a bear at the London Zoo, while "Pooh" was the name of a swan.

He first appeared in a 1925 story and is the main character in the books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). The character is known for his good-natured personality and his adventures with friends like Piglet, Eeyore, and Christopher Robin in the Hundred Acre Wood.

211230 112

Gabriele Münter : Sunset over Staffelsee, 1908-11 Oil on cardboard 33 × 40.6 cm Münter (1877–1962), was a leading figure of the Munich avant-garde and a co-founder of the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) movement. Further description in the alt text 👇

The painting was created during Münter's highly productive period in Murnau am Staffelsee, a small Bavarian market town where she lived and worked alongside her partner, Wassily Kandinsky.

The Murnau Landscape:
The local scenery, particularly Lake Staffelsee and the surrounding Alps, became a defining source of inspiration for her artistic breakthrough.

Expressionist Technique:
Shifting away from her earlier impressionistic tendencies, Münter utilized bold, simplified forms and heavy, dark contours.

Color Choice:
The composition features intense, non-naturalistic color palettes, using radiant yellows, glowing oranges, deep blues, and structural greens to project emotional and spiritual weight onto the landscape rather than merely documenting a realistic sunset.

0829 82

Otto Dix : Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926 tempera on a wood panel Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou in Paris Further description in the alt text 👇

The "New Woman" (Neue Frau):
The subject, Sylvia von Harden, embodies the archetypal emancipated woman of the 1920s Weimar era, androgynous, intellectual, and completely unconcerned with traditional notions of feminine grace.

Dix encountered von Harden on a street in Berlin and reportedly insisted on painting her because she perfectly captured an entire historical epoch. Rather than flattering his subject, Dix used exaggeration to extract psychological truths:

The Figure:
Von Harden is depicted with short, boyish hair, a sharp jawline, prominent teeth, and an exaggeratedly elongated hand. Her monocle functions as a symbol of her intellectual, observing profession as a journalist.

The Wardrobe:
Her high-necked, red-and-black checkered dress clashes deliberately with the pinkish background, amplifying the painting's tense, modern energy.

The Environment:
Seated alone at a café table, she balances a cigarette between her fingers next to a cocktail glass and a box of matches bearing her name. Her rolled-down stocking exposes a bare knee, which was considered highly provocative and a mark of modern autonomy at the time.

05310 53

Wassily Kandinsky : Improvisation 30 (Cannons), 1913 "The joy of life consists in the inevitable, continual triumph of new values." ~ wk

09019 90

Jar with octopus motif 1450–1400 BCE Knossos, Crete 74.5cm tall Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

013828 138

Kurt Schwitters : The Merzbau (The Cathedral of Erotic Misery), 1921 Collage Further description in the alt text 👇

Concept of Space:
Schwitters transitioned from the flat surface of collage and painting (Merzbilder) into a habitable, three-dimensional space. He called it "a sculpture in space in which you can enter and go for a walk".

Materials:
It featured geometric planes, grotto-like structures, and embedded mementos or found objects contributed by friends and fellow artists.

Destruction and Reconstructions:
The original Hanover Merzbau was destroyed in an Allied air raid in 1943. A famous physical reconstruction by Peter Bissegger (1981–1983) is permanently housed at the Sprengel Museum Hannover. Later iterations included the Norwegian Merzbau and the final Merz Barn in Elterwater, England.

2367 36

Peter Max : Big Red Flowers #195, 2009 acrylic over lithograph on paper 28 × 21 inches The composition embodies his characteristic Cosmic '60s and flower-power lineage, showcasing a central vase overflowing with vibrant, heavily textured blooms against dynamic, swirling backgrounds. More info 👇

A collector favorite, Max's 'Big Red Flowers' is a lush example of his kinetic, expressionistic brushwork and signature, bold, fauvist color.

Max's flowers fill the piece in a joyous burst - painted with spontaneity, motion and multi-colored brushstrokes. His color palette is an exuberant rainbow executed with energetic swirls and strokes. The work is perpetually in bloom and a joy to behold.

1345 34

phoenixrising @mmcarthur.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Jean-Michel Basquiat : Mr. Greedy, 1986 oilstick on canvas 120 × 100 cm | 47-1/4 × 39-3/8 in Further description in the alt text 👇

The painting depicts a strange, cartoon-like figure floating against a bright blue field.

Distinctive Features:
The figure has a long yardstick for a nose (recalling Pinocchio), wears Basquiat's signature three-pointed crown, and is missing one leg.

Themes and Meaning:
The piece blends childlike imagery with sharp social commentary. It offers a critique of consumerism, capitalism, and the pressure of the commercial art world, symbolizing greed as a flawed or incomplete condition rather than a triumph.

03411 34

William J. Webbe (UK, 1830-1904) : The White Owl, 1856 Oil on board 17 ¾ × 10 ⅜ in | 45 × 26.3 cm Accompanied by lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s short poem The Owl: "Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits" Private Collection Further description in the alt text 👇

Known for its meticulous naturalism and detailed feather textures, reflecting the Pre-Raphaelite style.

A solitary barn owl (Tyto alba) perched on a wooden beam in a belfry, clutching a mouse in its claws.

19621 96

This is a detail of the full image. 😊

000 0

Salvador Dalí (1904-89) : Flordali I, 27 August 1981, Port Lligat Gouache, collage, watercolour and felt-tip pen on paper 24-3/4 × 34-7/8 in | 63 × 88.5 cm Further info in the alt text 👇

As much intellectual as sensationalist, Dalí often looked to literature, history and the opera for inspiration.

He created portfolios of drawings, etchings and engravings inspired by Bizet's Carmen, Dante's La Divine Comédie and Cervante's Don Quixote, but found the traditional printmaking methods too constricting and lamented the inability to use colour in the brilliant, bombastic way he envisioned in preparatory studies.

In the early 1960s he began to incorporate collaged elements such as botanical and butterfly prints (and photographs) into his works on paper, and it was through a chance encounter while sifting through a print shop's bins that he was introduced to an alternative printing process.

These illustrious collages, to be ultimately translated into lithographs (Michler & Löpsinger nos. 1586 & 1587) are the result of a period of collaboration, experimentation and reflection Dalí had begun in the sixties.

Each a fully realized composition, capturing themes that were reflected in Dalí's work throughout his life; fruit and flowers that captivated the artist's imagination for not only their explosive colour but also for the power of their fertility, and butterflies, a symbol of continual metamorphosis and of the multiplicity of the soul itself.

And then, of course, depicted in the familiar topsy-turvy Dalinian world; as he transforms these elements into mystical characters, striding around the composition, in action, all within these wonderfully deep and ominous landscapes.

What adds further to the ingenuity of these works, and their multi-dimensionality, is how Dalí may have incorporated elements of iconic Currier & Ives prints into the compositions as collage elements, paying homage to the great 19th century American printmakers in an intimate take on American nostalgia, as he had already done in his 1971 series Currier & Ives.

1317 31

LOL wasn't necessarily looking for that. I just found it in one of my photos and thought it was funny. 😄

100 1

Pablo Picasso : Woman with a Guitar (Femme avec une guitare), 1913 Oil on canvas 100 × 81.6 cm | 39⅝ × 32⅛ in Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA Further description in the alt text 👇

Painted in early 1913, 'Woman with a Guitar' represents a significant example of Synthetic Cubism, the innovative phase of Cubist painting in which Picasso increasingly emphasized the construction of images through overlapping planes, simplified forms, contrasting textures, and visual references drawn from everyday life.

Rather than presenting a woman holding a musical instrument through conventional anatomical representation, Picasso reduces the subject to an intricate arrangement of geometric fragments. Rectangular planes, delicate curves, intersecting lines, and subtly differentiated surfaces suggest the presence of a figure whose identity emerges gradually through the viewer’s interpretation.

Along the central axis of the composition, abbreviated contours evoke facial features, the body of a guitar, and a hand grasping the instrument’s neck. These recognizable elements are integrated into a complex structure in which the boundaries between figure, object, and surrounding space become deliberately ambiguous.

The restrained palette of ivory, muted gray, pale rose, brown, and blue-green contributes to the painting’s architectural character.

At the left, an illusionistically rendered fragment of green faux-marble paneling suggests the decorative interior of a Parisian café, introducing a recognizable reference to the modern urban environment.

16011 60

Georg Scholz (Germany, 1890-1945) : Nächtlicher Lärm (Nightly Noise), 1919 oil on canvas 56.8 × 51cm | 22-3/8 × 20-1/8 in Private Collection Bio in the alt text 👇

Scholz served in the First World War from the summer of 1915-18, and was wounded just a few months before its end.

Painted in 1919, the present work reflects the horror and suffering he had witnessed during the war, as well as the violence and oppression during the years that followed in struggling Weimar, Germany.

No doubt inspired by the quintessential Expressionist image, Edvard Munch’s 'The Scream', 'Nächtlicher Lärm' employs expressive, contrasted colours and sharp, violent shapes to convey the depth of human suffering and terror.

Whilst Munch presents a more universal, existentialist image of the human condition, Scholz’s Nächtlicher Lärm is deeply rooted in the specific historical and political reality of the period.

The night-time setting metaphorically depicts the artist’s psychological state, its silence violently pierced by the cry that emanates from the figure’s mouth and spreads out to embrace the entire space of the composition.

Employing sharp edges and dynamic forms influenced by Futurist art, Scholz transforms his darkest emotions of fear into a powerful and striking composition.

422945 229

Lolllll I'd be equally silent with my thoughts screaming the answer.

010 1

Tamara Natalie Madden (1975-2017) : Woman (Night time, gold hair patina), early 2000-17 Mixed media & acrylic 11 × 14 inches Further description in the alt text 👇

This specific piece utilizes her signature blend of rich acrylic textures and layered materials, juxtaposing deep nighttime hues with a vibrant, metallic gold hair patina that acts as a crown-like halo for the central subject.

Madden was a Jamaica-born painter and mixed-media artist working and living in the US. Her paintings are allegories whose subjects are the people of the African diaspora.

Madden was known for her artwork focusing on the social, spiritual and cultural identity of people of African ancestry — and her paintings that transformed ordinary people into royalty.

She has said the golden headpieces worn by subjects of her paintings were meant to represent mystical crowns, halos, armor and weaponry for the spiritual warriors.

Many of her pieces are in the collections of institutions such as Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee; Alverno College in Milwaukee; and The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, among others.

0217 21

Well, I'm not allowed to decorate the pumpkin anymore.

Pumpkin painted black with 2 zippers for eyes and a black leather strap with a gold ring around the area where the mouth should be that wasn't painted black.

78212 82

Happy Cosmic Birthday to John Edward Prine, born otd in 1946 in Maywood, IL 🎂 Summer's End youtu.be/nXbEFTv9zr0

0366 36

Jules Adolphe Breton (FR, 1827-1906) : The Song of the Lark, 1884 oil on canvas 110.6 × 85.8 cm | 43.5 × 33.75 in First exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1885, "The Song of the Lark" was one of the first paintings to enter the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection when they opened in 1893. More 👇

A lone peasant girl pauses her work to listen to a lark singing in the distance. Her emotional response to this moment of natural beauty is accentuated by the glow of the sun rising behind her, suffusing the landscape with golden light.

Breton specialized in scenes of rustic life in the countryside. Having been raised in the rural village of Courrières in northern France, he admired the people living there for their resourcefulness and connection to nature and gained immense popularity by painting them in his idealized style.

215420 154

Marsden Hartley : Mont Saint-Victoire, 1927 Oil on canvas 20 × 24 in. | 50.8 × 61 cm Although Hartley has been called "America's first great modern painter of the 20th century", his original work has been overlooked. Further description in the alt text 👇

Louisiana presented him in 2019 at the first retrospective exhibition in Europe in over 60 years.

Marsden Hartley was both a painter and a poet and lived much of his life as a nomad between Europe and the United States, and his work can be considered a bridge between European and American modernism.

His many travels resulted in a series of deeply original work groups from 1906 to 1943. Among these are abstract paintings based on military symbols from the horrors of World War I, almost surreal landscapes from New Mexico, and feminized figure paintings of muscular workers.

In his wandering, restless life as an artist, Hartley often changed completely his direction and artistic style. In Mont Saint-Victoire he clearly resembles the great French master, Cézanne, who painted this particular mountain into the art historical canon.

Marsden Hartley was centrally placed in the art world both in Europe and at home. Nevertheless, Hartley's art has been largely unknown - perhaps because of the multifaceted nature of his work, which has made it difficult to place him in art history.

The Louisiana exhibition was one of the largest presentations of Marsden Hartley's art. With over 110 paintings, the exhibition encompassed the artist's entire oeuvre, including his work as a poet and essayist.

1227 22

Alexander Archipenko (Ukraine) : Femme assise (Composition), 1920 31.1 × 23.2 cm Gouache on paper This work was prominently featured in the famous avant-garde periodical Der Sturm (Volume 11, Number 9-10) on November 5, 1920 Further description in the alt text 👇

0165 16

Wassily Kandinsky : Blue Segment, 1921 Oil on canvas 47-1/2 × 55-1/8 in | 120.6 × 140 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC Further description in the alt text 👇

The piece features a complex, highly abstract composition filled with geometric shapes, including sharp triangles, intersecting lines, circles, and flowing swirls.

Its vibrant palette contrasts a dark or dynamic background with bursts of blue, yellow, green, and pink tones.

Rather than being painted spontaneously, the artwork was carefully structured through a series of layered preparatory drawings.

The prominent crescent-like blue segment from which the painting takes its name anchors the dynamic visual balance of the composition.

06412 64

Paul Klee : Grenzen des Verstandes (The Limits of Reason or The Bounds of the Intellect), 1927 Oil, watercolor, pencil, and canvas tempera on canvas mounted on wood 56.44 × 41.50 cm | 22.22 × 16.34 in Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany Further description in the alt text 👇

Features a frozen red sphere suspended above a dynamic, delicate linear structure, including intersecting thin vectors and a structural element/ladder extending into transparent or circular zones against a deep gradient background.

Period Context:
Created during Klee's tenure teaching at the Bauhaus.

Interpretation:
Most users on Facebook agree that the piece symbolically depicts a thinking head or the boundaries of human intellect constrained by life's circumstances and finite duration.

122939 229

Victor Brauner : Composition, 1964 Created during the later phase of his career, works from 1964 (such as La machine à privilèges or Super Janus) feature intuitive, cutout-like shapes, symbolic figures, and a balance of earthy tones with cool colors. More info in the alt text 👇

Brauner viewed all his creations as deeply personal reflections of a life marked by displacement and the avant-garde movement.

Market Presence:
Pieces from this period have appeared through international auction houses like Sotheby's and Finarte, cementing his legacy across major global museums.

0279 27

Robert Delaunay : Circular Forms, Sun No. 2, 1912-13 Distemper on canvas 100 × 68.5 cm Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris Orphism (term coined by poet Guillaume Apollinaire to describe a poetic, lyrical branch of Cubism focusing on pure color and light). More in the alt text👇

Heavily inspired by scientist Michel-Eugène Chevreul's 19th-century color theories, Delaunay placed complementary and contrasting colors side by side to generate a rhythmic sense of depth, vibration, and perpetual motion purely through visual interaction.

Instead of painting a physical representation of the sun, Delaunay painted the dynamic, energetic experience of light itself, utilizing large concentric disks and segmented geometric prisms. This pioneering approach profoundly impacted contemporaries, shaping the trajectory of early 20th-century abstract expression.

08521 85

I wrote a 50 page thesis in 1989 on the Moral & Ethical Implications of Virtual Reality. No Google. Had a desktop computer but that was all. I read. A lot. Took notes. Professor wanted me to publish it, I said no. No idea where it is now. Probably the trash. I never kept anything back then.

150 5