Knossos: Fakes, Facts, and Mystery. "The masterpieces of Minoan art are not what they seem... The truth is that these famous icons are largely modern. As any sharp-eyed visitor to the Heraklion museum can spot, what survives of the original paintings amounts in most cases to no more than a few square inches. The rest is more or less imaginative reconstruction, commissioned in the first half of the twentieth century by Sir Arthur Evans, the British excavator of the palace of Knossos (and the man who coined the term 'Minoan' for this prehistoric Cretan civilization, after the mythical King Minos who is said to have held the throne there). As a general rule of thumb, the more famous the image now is, the less of it is actually ancient."
posted by homunculus on Aug 30, 2009 - 16 comments

The portfolio of Christian rex Van Minnen. [Via]
posted by homunculus on May 29, 2009 - 11 comments

Tibetan Visions: Contemporary Painting from Tibet.
posted by homunculus on May 14, 2009 - 5 comments

Boris Indrikov Gallery. [Via musecrack]
posted by homunculus on Feb 15, 2009 - 1 comment

Heiko Müller - Paintings and Drawings. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Nov 25, 2008 - 4 comments

Tickling Thicket: the art of Katty Stone and Yvette Molina. [Via BLDGBLOG and Inhabitat] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Nov 16, 2008 - 2 comments

Surrendering to the Spirit Vine. Artist Alex Grey (previously) describes his experience with "the champagne of ayahuascas."
posted by homunculus on Sep 24, 2008 - 13 comments

META. An exhibition of new artwork by Bruno 9li. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Sep 13, 2008 - 10 comments

Ambien Somnambulants. New works by Camille Rose Garcia. [Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Sep 9, 2008 - 5 comments

The art of Joe Vaux. [Via Changethethought]
posted by homunculus on Aug 8, 2008 - 6 comments

10 Amazing Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers: From Light Writing to Extreme Exposures. [Possibly NSFW]
posted by homunculus on Jul 15, 2008 - 15 comments

Buddha’s Caves: The Caves of Dunhuang.
posted by homunculus on Jul 6, 2008 - 7 comments

The Paintings of Fred Einaudi. [Via everlasting blort]
posted by homunculus on Jul 5, 2008 - 17 comments

Ancient Buddhist Paintings From Bamiyan Were Made Of Oil, Hundreds Of Years Before Technique Was 'Invented' In Europe. [Via MonkeyFilter.] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Apr 24, 2008 - 23 comments

Monkey Portraits: Allegories of Brand Loyalty, by Laurie Hogin. [Via Right Some Good.] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Jan 4, 2008 - 10 comments

India's Ancient Art. "Fifth-century painters created stunning murals in dim man-made caves. A gifted photographer brings them to light." [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Dec 25, 2007 - 13 comments

Andy Kehoe - Into The Forest Of Broken Dreams. [Via MONSTER BRAINS.]
posted by homunculus on Oct 7, 2007 - 7 comments

Burmese artist Htein Lin was imprisoned by his country's military government from 1998 to 2004 on charges of planning opposition protests. In prison he was forced to improvise to continue painting, using paints smuggled in by guards and white cotton prison uniforms as canvases. In place of brushes he used his fingers, cigarette lighters, syringes, pieces of netting, dinner plates, and blocks of soap. Burma Inside Out (PDF), an exhibition of some of his prison work, will be on display at the Asia House Gallery in London from July 27 to October 13.
posted by homunculus on Jul 26, 2007 - 10 comments

Paintings of Buddha dating back at least to the 12th century have been discovered in a cave in Nepal. Tipped by a local shepherd, a team of international researchers climbed to some old caves where they found a mural with 55 panels depicting the life of Buddha, reminiscent of the artwork of the Ajanta Caves in India (possibly NSFW). There are probably many other forgotten caves in the Mustang area (previously discussed here,) but they may be threatened by a planned trans-Himalayan highway.
posted by homunculus on May 13, 2007 - 22 comments

3D Glass Paintings by Xia Xiaowan. [Via Table of Malcontents.]
posted by homunculus on Apr 17, 2007 - 24 comments

Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Grey has been around for a long time but hasn't been linked here before. He has a new DVD out called World Spirit, which you can watch clips from online. [Via Future Hi.]
posted by homunculus on Jan 30, 2005 - 11 comments

Contemporary Tibetan Painting.
posted by homunculus on Oct 23, 2004 - 3 comments

touchy-feely. Small oil paintings on chalkboards of sock puppets, each expressing a different emotion.
posted by homunculus on Feb 6, 2004 - 16 comments

Odd Nerdrum. [Via Giornale Nuovo.]
posted by homunculus on Jan 10, 2004 - 5 comments

A restoration project has been underway since 1998 to restore the 15th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery wall paintings of Lo Monthang, a city in the kingdom of Mustang in northwest Nepal. The results have been very impressive. Mustang is also home to some amazing cave temples.
posted by homunculus on Dec 27, 2003 - 12 comments

The art of Andrzej Jackowski. [Via wood s lot.]
posted by homunculus on Oct 27, 2003 - 6 comments

The Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project was founded by artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid to teach domesticated elephants to paint so their works could be sold to support the elephants and their human masters.
posted by homunculus on Apr 9, 2002 - 5 comments