Nadia Wicker, 1981 | Fashion illusions photography

French photographer Nadia Wicker is an illusion artists, a master in the art of transporting oneself into their own visual universe.

Self-taught photographer and makeup artist, Wicker works in the genres of fashion and fine-art photography.

In a time where photography is reaching further and further into the realm of fantasy, digital manipulation has exploded as a medium for artists to unleash their imaginations.

Nadia Wicker is in on the action in her own special way, but she’s got an old-school ace up her sleeve… she used to be a makeup artist.

Giacomo Leopardi | Calm after the storm / La quiete dopo la tempesta, 1829

The storm hath passed;

I hear the birds rejoice; the hen,

Returned into the road again,

Her cheerful notes repeats. The sky serene

Is, in the west, upon the mountain seen:

The country smiles; bright runs the silver stream.

Giovanni Segantini | Dopo il temporale / After the thunderstorm

Jane DeDecker, 1961 | Figurative sculptor

Jane DeDecker has been sculpting the human figure for over thirty-five years. She seeks to capture moments that reveal truths about the human condition, that, when stripped down to their essence, are understood intrinsically.

As a figurative sculptor, she communicates emotional experience through lyrical compositions that move the viewer.

DeDecker’s sculptures stop life in mid-sentence - somewhere between inhaling and exhaling - and gives it form. She tells a story through the simple moments that imprint our lives and define us.

Manuel de Gracia (1937-2017)

Spanish painter Manuel de Gracia was born in Mora de Toledo. He started in Madrid practicing in the Círculo de Bellas Artes workshops and he held his first solo exhibition in 1963 in the Sala Toisón, together with Manuel Cano and José Suárez.

Later he exhibited individually at the Eureka gallery and after that he showed this work in Valladolid and Santander.

Wassily Kandinsky | III - The Spiritual revolution, 1910

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910

The spiritual triangle moves slowly onwards and upwards. Today one of the largest of the lower segments has reached the point of using the first battle cry of the materialist creed. The dwellers in this segment group themselves round various banners in religion. They call themselves Jews, Catholics, Protestants, etc. But they are really atheists, and this a few either of the boldest or the narrowest openly avow. "Heaven is empty", "God is dead".

In politics these people are democrats and republicans. The fear, horror and hatred which yesterday they felt for these political creeds they now direct against anarchism, of which they know nothing but its much dreaded name.

Carl Frederic Aagaard (1833-1895)

Carl Frederik Peder Aagaard was a Danish landscape painter and decorative artist.

He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and under P. C. Skovgaard. Many of his paintings focused on spots frequented by tourists.

Biography

He was the son of a shoemaker. He had his first painting lessons in Odense but, in order to improve his skills, moved to Copenhagen in 1852 and joined his brother Johan, who was a woodcutter.

Emily Dickinson | I Fear a man of frugal speech / Temo l'uomo di poche parole

Danielle Richard | Sometimes in Summer

I fear a Man of frugal Speech

I fear a Silent Man

Haranguer I can overtake

Or Babbler entertain

Wassily Kandinsky | III. La svolta spirituale

Lo spirituale nell'arte, 1910

Il triangolo procede lentamente verso l'alto. Oggi una delle più ampie sezioni inferiori ha raggiunto il livello dei primi postulati del "dogma" materialistico. Da un punto di vista religioso i suoi abitanti hanno vari nomi. Si chiamano Ebrei, Cattolici, Protestanti, ecc. In realtà sono atei, come i più audaci (o i più limitati) di loro riconoscono apertamente.

Il "cielo" è vuoto.

"Dio è morto".

Politicamente sono democratici o repubblicani. La paura, il disprezzo e l'odio che un tempo nutrivano per queste tendenze politiche li hanno riversati oggi sull'anarchia, di cui conoscono solo il terribile nome. In economia sono socialisti. Affilano la spada della giustizia per vibrare il colpo mortale all'idra capitalista e tagliare la testa al male.

Wassily Kandinsky | Amsterdam view from the window

Wassily Kandinsky | II - Del movimento, 1910

Lo spirituale nell'arte, 1910

Un grande triangolo acuto diviso in sezioni disuguali, che si restringono verso l'alto, rappresenta in modo schematico, ma preciso, la vita spirituale. In basso, le sezioni del triangolo diventano sempre più grandi ed estese.

Il triangolo si muove lentamente, quasi impercettibilmente, verso l'alto e dove "oggi" c'è il vertice, "domani" ci sarà la prima sezione; quello cioè che oggi è comprensibile solo al vertice, e per il resto del triangolo è ancora un oscuro vaniloquio, domani diventerà la vita, densa di emozioni e di significati, della seconda sezione.

Al vertice sta qualche volta solo un uomo. Il suo sguardo è sereno come la sua immensa tristezza. E quelli che gli sono più vicini non lo capiscono. Irritati, lo definiscono un truffatore o un pazzo. Così disprezzarono Beethoven, che visse da solo, al vertice.

Wassily Kandinsky | Various actions