From Michelangelo’s bonfire to Miró’s blowtorch: nine artists who burned, slashed or cut up their own art, and what each act of destruction revealed.

She does not look at us so much as through us. Her chin rests on her clasped hands, her copper hair spills loose, and her pale eyes are fixed on something beyond the edge of the canvas. In front of her, three orange lilies are going brown at the edges. Behind her, on a shelf, a bronze head with a single blue wing seems to doze. Nothing happens in this painting, and that is precisely the point. Fernand Khnopff called it "I Lock My Door Upon Myself", and more than 130 years lat

A young woman stands beside a tall swinging mirror. Her hand rests lightly on its frame; her profile turns away from us, while in the glass a second version of her looks back in a slightly different direction. Behind her, there is almost nothing — a bare wall, the hint of a window, a pool of afternoon light. The photograph was taken around 1863 in a house at 5 Princes Gardens, London, and its corners are torn as if someone once pulled it hastily from an album. That someone wa

Meet Eugène Jansson, the Swedish painter who turned Stockholm's nights into deep blue visions, then reinvented himself painting bathers and athletes.

Two boys are walking along a sandy path by the water. They carry a stretcher between them, made from a couple of poles, and on it sits a girl in white. She has wings, and one of them is streaked with blood. A bandage is wrapped around her head and pulled low over her eyes. In one hand she holds a small bunch of snowdrops. The boy at the back has stopped looking where he's going. He's looking at us. That's about all that happens in Hugo Simberg's The Wounded Angel, painted in

Every commission begins with a handshake and a hope. The patron imagines one thing and the artist imagines another, and usually the two can be made to meet somewhere in the middle. Sometimes they can't. Then a painting gets taken down, a statue gets recarved or a mural is chipped off the wall. What's odd is how often the rejected version is the one we remember. Below are ten commissions, in rough chronological order, that went badly wrong. In nearly every case, history ended

Every painting has a back story, and some of them have a second painting as well. For centuries artists scraped down, turned around or simply painted over canvases they could no longer use. They did it because canvas was expensive, because a sitter fell out of favour, or because an idea had gone sour. Then the evidence was sealed under a new layer of oil, and it stayed there until X-rays, infrared cameras and particle accelerators came along. What follows are nine paintings t

There is something almost poetic about Jane Atché’s place in art history. She once created an image that could be seen across the streets of France, yet her name gradually disappeared from the story of Art Nouveau. Today, her work is often mentioned beside Alphonse Mucha’s, but Atché deserves to be looked at on her own terms. Born in Toulouse on August 16, 1872, Atché moved to Paris in the early 1890s and studied at the Académie Julian, an important institution for women arti

There's a particular strand of British painting that never chased the avant-garde — that stayed rooted in observed life, in rivers and cricket grounds and the faces of people the artist actually knew. William Bowyer RA belonged firmly to that tradition, and spent nearly seventy years working within it. A Staffordshire Beginning Born in Leek, Staffordshire on 25 May 1926, Bowyer's path into art wasn't inevitable — sport came first. As a boy he played cricket for Leek and swam

Some artists capture history, while others capture a feeling. Thomas Wilmer Dewing belongs firmly to the latter. A leading figure of the American Tonalist movement, Dewing dedicated his career to painting quiet moments that exist somewhere between reality and memory. His canvases are not driven by dramatic narratives or vivid colors; instead, they invite viewers into a world where silence, atmosphere, and emotion become the true subjects. Born in Boston in 1851, Dewing first

Among the many provocative works created by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele, Schiele’s Room in Neulengbach (also known as My Living Room or The Artist’s Room in Neulengbach) occupies a unique place. Painted in 1911, this intimate interior scene offers far more than a simple depiction of domestic space. It serves as a psychological self-portrait, revealing Schiele’s emotional isolation, artistic identity, and unconventional way of life. At first glance, the painting appear

On this day in 1888, Vincent van Gogh completed La Mousmé, one of the most captivating portraits from his celebrated Arles period. Painted during the artist's stay in southern France, the work reflects Van Gogh's fascination with both Japanese aesthetics and the vibrant atmosphere of Provence, resulting in a portrait that is at once deeply personal and strikingly modern. Van Gogh moved to Arles in February 1888 in search of stronger sunlight, richer colors, and a simpler way

With the passing of David Hockney, the art world bids farewell to one of its most distinctive and influential voices. For more than six decades, Hockney reshaped contemporary art through an extraordinary combination of technical mastery, fearless experimentation, and an unwavering fascination with the act of seeing itself. His death marks the end of a remarkable chapter in modern art, but his vision will continue to inspire generations of artists and viewers around the world.

The news of the passing of Iranian-born French artist, writer, and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi at the age of 56 has left the worlds of art and literature in mourning. Admired by millions of readers around the globe, Satrapi was far more than a cartoonist or author; she was a powerful cultural voice who built a visual legacy around freedom, identity, exile, and women's rights. Born in Iran in 1969, Satrapi spent her childhood in the shadow of the Iranian Revolution and the estab

Gustave Courbet’s “The Happy Lovers” (Les Amants heureux), painted around 1844, is a deeply personal and romantic work. The painting depicts a young couple embracing in nature, and the male figure is widely believed to be Courbet himself. The woman is thought to be his companion at the time, Virginie Binet. Because of this, the work is often seen not only as a romantic scene, but also as a semi-autobiographical painting. The painting belongs to Courbet’s early career, before

Written nearly three thousand years ago, the Odyssey still continues to influence modern cinema, contemporary art, music, and literature. Attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, this epic is far more than the story of a hero returning home; it is a timeless reflection on loss, transformation, and the human search for identity. Perhaps this is why the Odyssey never truly belonged only to the past. Every era has projected its own fears and dreams into the story. Ulysses Der

Acrylic painting has become one of the most versatile and widely used techniques in contemporary art, offering artists a unique balance between control and spontaneity. Unlike oil paint, acrylic dries quickly, allowing for rapid layering and experimentation, yet it can also be manipulated to mimic the richness of oils or the transparency of watercolor. Rothko in gallery One of the key subtleties of working with acrylic paint lies in understanding its drying time. Because acry

František Hudeček’s Lamps in the Fog is a poetic and atmospheric exploration of isolation, uncertainty, and the psychological experience of modern urban life. In this work, fog is not merely a visual setting but a powerful metaphor for ambiguity, obscured perception, and inner disorientation. The dim lamps that emerge through the haze become central symbols, simultaneously suggesting guidance and hope while also emphasizing distance, fragility, and loneliness. This duality cr

Wu Guanzhong (1919–2010) stands as one of the most influential figures in the transformation of modern Chinese art. His work represents a rare and sophisticated synthesis of Eastern tradition and Western modernism, positioning him as a key mediator between two distinct artistic worlds. At a time when Chinese artists were grappling with the pressures of modernization and cultural identity, Wu developed a visual language that neither rejected tradition nor passively imitated th

Surrealism emerged as one of the most radical and transformative movements of the 20th century, representing not merely an aesthetic direction but a profound shift in ways of thinking. To understand its origins, one must look to the deep trauma experienced in Europe after World War I. During this period, Enlightenment ideals such as reason, progress, and rationality came under intense scrutiny; the catastrophic consequences of so-called “progress” led artists into a state of