Tag Archives: women

Museum Muses – Muses du musée

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Street art of a slightly different kind….  Seen pasted on a wall on a street in Paris – a display of black and white prints of famous paintings by women artists from over the centuries.

below: ‘Game of Chess’ by Sofonisba Anguissola (c1532-1625, Italian)

painting of three women, two are playing chess and the third is watching, painted by Sofonisba Anguissola in the 16th century. A black and white print pasted on a wall

below:Self Portrait by Judith Leyster (1609-1660, Dutch)

black and white print of Judith Leyster's self portrait

below: Portrait of Antonietta Gonzales painted by Lavinia Fontana. (1552-1614). She was possibly Italy’s first professional painter. The subject of the painting, Antonietta, suffered from a condition known as hypertrichosis (aka werewolf syndrome), a rare genetic disorder that results in excess body hair. Antonietta’s father also had the disorder as did two of her sisters.

black and white print of Lavinia Fontan's portrait of a young girl with werewolf syndrome, painted in the 1500s

below: A man’s portrait by Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757, Venetian)

black and white print of a man's portrait painted by Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian painter

below: ‘Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin’ by Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), a Swiss Neoclassical painter. Her father was also a painter. He started teaching her at an early age and by 12 she was already known as a painter in her own right. Kauffman was one of only two women founders of the Royal Academy in London.

black and white print of a still life with flowers in a vase and two trophies on a table

below: “Still Life with Flowers and Gold Trophies” by Clara Peeters (1589-1657, Flemish)

black and white print of a painting of a woman as vestal virgin posing, pasted on a wall outside

below: Another still life with flowers, this one by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). She was a Dutch artist whose painting career lasted more than 60 years; she was a master at painting still lifes with flowers.

painting of still life flower arrangement, black and white copy pasted onto a wall outdoors

below: ‘The Redeemer’ by St. Hildegard von Bingen (c1098-1179), with a copy of the original (in colour and unfaded) underneath. St. Hildegard, or Sybil of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess with many accomplishments to her name.

a faded to sepia from black and white print of a painting of the redeemer, full of Christian symbolism, by St. Hildegard many centuries ago, copy is pasted onto a concrete wall with peeling paint in Paris

print of a painting of the redeemer, full of Christian symbolism, by St. Hildegard many centuries ago, original colours

below: ‘The Penis Tree’. Between about 1325 and 1353, Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston printed books and manuscripts including the “scandalous, rude and misogynistic” poem, the ‘Roman de la Rose’. The first 4,058 verses were written by Guillaume de Lorris in the early 1200s and they describe a courtier’s attempt to win over a woman. About 40 years later, Jean de Meun (aka Jean Chopinel) wrote another 19000 lines. This was before the invention of the printing press so each manuscript was hand drawn. The picture shown here of a nun picking penises from a tree is attributed to Jeanne de Montbaston.

very small print of a medieval drawing of a person picking penises off a small tree and putting them in a basket, displayed with other images on an exterior wall with peeling paint.

two women and a faded heart

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below: A red headed woman wrapped in a blue shawl and holding a white rose.  White roses are symbols of purity and innocence as well as love and affection.  Traditionally the Virgin Mary is depicted with a blue shawl or similar clothing.  The mural is ‘Oblicze Piękna’, painted in 2018 by Paulina Nawrot.  The title translates to Face of Beauty, or Vision of Beauty.

below: A faded woman sits by her telephone in a 2014 mural by Russian artist, Morik as part of Galeria Urbans Forms.

mural by Morik of a woman sitting on the floor beside a telephone, with large plant leaves around her, monstera deliciosa.
close up of part of a mural, a woman's head with large leaves from a monstera deliciosa house plant.
close up of part of a mural, an old fashion telephone with the receiver off the hook and lying on the floor. A woman's hands and bare feet are by the phone.

below: Another faded mural, this one shows an anatomically correct heart with half of a butterfly on each side. Above the heart grows a large tree. The mural was painted in 2015 by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz and is titled “Czuć” (or in English, “Feel”)

on the side of a building with a small tree partially blocking the view, a faded mural. An anatomically correct heart in the center bottom with a large deciduous tree growing from it. A butterfly, cut in half, sits on either side of the heart.

Jewish Women of Kaunas

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Before the second World War, about one quarter of the population of Kaunas LIthuania was Jewish – about 30,000 people. Known in Yiddish as Kovno, it was a city As part of the City Telling Festival (Istoriju Festivalis) in 2020 a couple of large murals were painted in memory of a few of these people. This festival was one of the events leading up to 2022 where Kaunas was one of the “European Capitals of Culture”

below: Leja (or Leah) Goldberg, b. 1911, poet. It was painted by Lithuanian artist Linas Kaziulionis and it measures 15 by 10 meters. The text is one of her poems “Oren” (Pine) written in Hebrew and Lithuanian.

large mural on the side of a building, painted by Linas Kaziulionis, portrait of a woman, Leja Goldberg, a poet born in Lithuania. Text of one of her poems is included in the mural, written in Hebrew on one side and in Lithuanian on the other

Goldberg was the daughter of Abraham and Cilia Goldberg. Her father was an economist at an insurance company before WW1. During the Great War (i.e. WW1), most of the Jews were “evacuated” from Lithuania and sent to the interior of Russia. Lea was three years old when the family was forcibly deported from Kaunas. When they returned after the war and the defeat of Germany, Lea’s father was tortured by Lithuanian soldiers who accused him of being a Communist. He died before Lea emigrated to Palestine in 1935; her mother followed her the next year.

One translation of the poem:

PINE

Here I will not hear the voice of the cuckoo.
Here the tree will not wear a cape of snow.
But it is here in the shade of these pines
my whole childhood reawakens.

The chime of the needles: Once upon a time –
I called the snow-space homeland,
and the green ice at the river’s edge –
was the poem’s grammar in a foreign place.

Perhaps only migrating birds know –
suspended between earth and sky –
the heartache of two homelands.

With you I was transplanted twice,
with you, pine trees, I grew –
roots in two disparate landscapes.

large mural on the side of a building, painted by Linas Kaziulionis, portrait of a woman, Leja Goldberg, a poet born in Lithuania. Text of one of her poems is included in the mural, written in Hebrew on one side and in Lithuanian on the other

below: Another mural with a poem that was also part of the same festival. It was painted by Tadas Vincaitis-Plūgas. The is mural dedicated to another Jewish family that lived in Kaunas before WW2.

large mural of a mother and daughter, Rosian Bagriansky and her mother, painted by Tadas Vincaitis, on the side of a building in Kaunas Lithuania

The words are those of Hirsh Ošerovičius (1908-1994) written in 1964. The text is in Lithuanian but one English translation is:

Ah, do you really believe,
Oblivion has the final say in what is to be forgotten?
For it is often only an image from the ashes rising
And stand in flesh, in full reality
Forever framed for every day to come.

large mural of a mother and daughter, Rosian Bagriansky and her mother, painted by Tadas Vincaitis, on the side of a building in Kaunas Lithuania

The mural depicts a mother, Greta, and her daughter Rosian Bagriansky. Rosian was born in 1935 in Kaunas. Her father, Paul (or Polis) Bagriansky, was a textile merchant and her mother was a concert pianist and music teacher. Rosian survived the Holocaust after her parents dug a hole next to the fence of Kaunas Ghetto and pushed Rosian through it and into the hands of one of their former employees, Bronė Budreikaitė. Rosian became Irena Budreikaitė

Clandestinos in a hidden corner

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…. of downtown Toronto.

a brick arch with a hanging light near the top, view through the arch is to a multi level parking garage, slight glimpses of a mural on the left side

Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky have painted another large colourful mural. This one features two women, a baltimore oriole, and many flowers.

mural by Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky in a narrow passageway

below: Close up of the bird, a baltimore oriole

part of a Clandestinos mural, showing a bird, a baltimore oriole, with a woman's face close to it. she has her eyes closed

close up of a womans face in a clandestinos mural, butterfly flying past her cheek,another woman behind her with flowers and fruit in her hair, eyes closed.

below: Adorned with leaves, flowers, and fruit – blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Lots of cherry blossoms and another bird too.

cherry blossoms, faces, painted in a mural, fruit and flowers for hair, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries

more Montreal women

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The previous blog post was about a large Montreal mural by Kevin Ledo that was a portrait of a woman called Mary Socktish. There are a number of other murals in the city that have a woman, or women, as the main feature. These are some of them – the following photos were taken on four visits to Montreal between 2015 and 2021 and some of these murals may no longer exist.

below: One of the older murals in Montreal, a graffiti granny, old woman by ASHOP Productions

mural of an older woman with hair in a bun, wearing glasses, and an apron,purple buildings in background on mural, on a Montreal corner,

below: A mural by five8art, a young woman looking skyward.

large mural of a young woman with longhair, blue background, she's looking up

below: By a Depanneur at Pins and Hotel de Ville, a large mural of two seated women and their scarf by Australian artist Fintan Magee.

At the corner, beside a depanneur, a large mural of two seated women by Fintan Magee, one has blue and white checkered scarf over her face, the other has same scarf across the top of her head.
Close up of mural by Fintan Magee in Montreal, by small window in building, hands of women plus their blue and white scarves

below: A mural by Rone, another Australian artist.

close up of a large mural by Rone of a woman's face in shades of brown, on a brick wall in Montreal, street art

below: Sorry is Not Enough, a mural by Denial (or Enjoy Denial) with a shout out to Black Lives Matter

large mural in Montreal of a woman crying, eyes closed, white tears, red lipstick, by Denial, above her face are words Sorry is not enough

below: From 2018, this mural by Drew Merritt and Sainte Famille and Milton (photo taken in 2018 as well)

mural of a woman on a MOntreal wall painted by Drew Merritt

below: Street artist Nychos working on a mural

street artist nychos up on a lift and painting a large mural in Montreal as people walk by on the street

mural by nychos in Montreal

below: A tribute to Lea Roback (1903-2000), by Carlos Oliva (aka Hsix) in 2014. Roback was a textile worker who became a trade union activist, feminist and pacifist (among other things). She fought for woman’s suffrage in Quebec (1936), she played a role in helping to organize 5,000 garment workers who had been on a three-week strike in 1937, and that is only a small fraction of what she accomplished.

below: by Sandra Chevrier, pop culture references to Superman and Batman

below: A collaboration between Cyrielle Tremblay and Poni (aka Hilda Palafox, painted in 2018. Working in an imaginary garden maybe?

muraal on a brick wall, two women working outside. One is planting a blue pine tree and the other is pouring water, ther is a cross on a red hill with other blue trees on it.

below: A whimsical black and white of women astronauts, guitar players, skate boarders, astronomers, and others. It is the work of Le Monstr, aka Benjamin Tran.

black and white mural of women doing a number of activites, also some sleeping cats, an astronaut among the planets, a shkateboarder, reading, playing guitar. Mural in Montreal, by Le Monstr, a k a Benjamin Tran

below: A mural from 2014 putting a spotlight on the call for justice for missing and murdered indigenous women.

on the side of a book store in Montreal, a mural calling for justice for missing and murderedindigenous women, a woman sitting outside, with a blanket around her shoulders

walls of Terra Sancta College, Baladk 2016

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Two of the walls that enclose the grounds of Terra Sancta College in Amman are covered with street art.  Most of it was painted as part of Baladk 2016 (art festival).  One of the walls features the red and white “name tags”, you know the ones that say “Hello, my name is….”.   The first one though has “city” instead of “name” because the general theme of Baladk 2016 was ‘Our City – The influence of the City upon yourself as an artist’.

below: Hello my city is Aman by aster.93

hello my city is - part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

end of wall as it turns corner, rounded corner

below: Black letters on the left by Kels aka Ali Amir and the red text (and DHAP Fam) are the mark of Deyaa Rambo

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

below: Yo! My name is Yaratun aka Yara Hindawi

yo my name is yaratun,

below: A name tag painted by DeevGraf aka Abdelrahman Hasan

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

school grounds wall with street art on it, Amman Jordan,

Our friendship is magic – Wedad and Eslam

below: Bully Bully Bully  (more of theirs below)  Mike V. Derderian

on a brown wall, three comical white characters, male, with exaggerated features drawn in black, each has an orange stripe through their face with the word Bully written on it

below: A long necked bird (duck? goose?)

mural with a yellow duck with its white beak open and white paper boats all around

below: A small green stenciled duck

small green stencil of a duck on a blue metal gate

blue gate on the left, cars parked in front of, wall with street art, houses and other buildings in the background

below: The City is so Empty is the work of Hamza Al Salhi

street art painting of a young woman with long black hair with a head band tied around her head, black face, no facial features, instead a red heart on her forehead and the words The city is so empty

below: The octopus was painted by Ibrahim Tonnerieux

street art white octopus with black dots, blue eyes, on a blue and green background

below: A portrait of a young woman by Suhaib Attar, 2019

portrait of a young woman on a blue circle background, long brown hair, brown eyes, by Suhaib Attar

below: “Our City” graffiti by Ammar Sinan (siner) and Wize One aka Wesam Shadid

black car parked in front of a brown wall with street art on it, Amman

street art of a blue hair woman sitting on white paper boats below: On the left, the pink design is by Yazan Hija, aka arthudz.  On the right, piano keys over her head, Metallica Load in her ear, and leaves for hair, by Suha Sultan

two white cars parked in front of a wall of Terra Sancta college with two murals on it, one by Suha Sultan with a woman with a Metallica Load vinyl record on the side of her head, and the other a pink shape

below: …With an addition by Joanna Anwar Madanat

mural by Suha Sultan of a woman with a vinyl record on the side of her head, piano keys covering the top of the mural, a young boy sitting beside a cityscape behind the woman,

street art on a wall including a large grey circle made of Arabic calligraphy, a purple mass partially hidden by a car, and a yellow star with an eye

When the silence gets old, make your own noise.

street art on a wall in Amman, a yellow star with an open mouth with big teeth and one eye, looking to the left, Arabic writing and a phone number tag, remnants of a drawing street art

street art on a wall in Amman,- two blue stylized characters with arms curved towards each other and holding hands

below: another Wize One contribution

street art on a wall in Amman, a woman with big afro hair by many white paper boats and a character in pink and white, curved arms stylized face

red monster face painted on a wall

below: He’s thinking… or just resting his head? Street art by Miramar Al Nayyar

large mural in shades of grey, a man's head, chin on fist and trhe other hand resting on the other side of his head, on a wall, covering some older street art

below: His hand and wrist obscure older street art.

part of a large mural of a grey man covers an older street art painting of a blue robot on background made with red Arabic calligraphy

below:  On the left, an Arabic verse by Dina Fawakhiri

two graffiti pieces, on the left an Arabic verse written vertically and on the right, a red monter head and shoulders,

below: by Hind Al Far

mural on pink background of a young woman with long purple hair, flower crown on her head, and blue butterflies flying nearby, head and shoulders

More information on Baladk 2016

***

As an aside, I saw one other Bully mural elsewhere in the city.  This knight in armor seemed to be on its own.

street art painting of a knight in armour holding a crown in his hand, bully written on shoulder of man and on crown

street art drawing of a caricature of a man, long pointy chin with beard, long hair in back, flat hat with large brim

Casablanca seawall

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There is a path that runs along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to the new Hassan 2 mosque.  Beside the path is a wall that has been painted with street art.  When I walked here in October 2019, these are the murals that I saw.   I have only been able to identify some of the artists.

women leaning against railing on path beside the ocean in Casablanca, with Hassan 2 mosque and Atlantic Ocean in the background

below: “Oxymoron” by iramo aka Iramo Samir

woman's head and shoulders, mural by Iramo Samir called Oxymoron, most of her face is covered with flowers, lower part of face and shoulders is blue water with a person who seems to be drowning

below: Like all the murals on this wall, this one is looking out to sea

stylized painting of a black face with yellow mouth, blue around one eye, red hair,

mural on a wall in Casablanca, blue woman's face with black cloth around top of head

below: A man in a purple camo hat, by Majid aka Majid El Bahar

man's head, mural, wearing a purple camo hat and a black top with lots of white squiggles on it. A rope winds its way through the image

below: Casablanca plus text (artist’s tag) by TRUST

text graffiti by trust also with word casablanca and some scenes from that city

below: By  Moka 187

mural by vida moka of a topless man with orange pants, mask over face, teapot in one hand, running,

sea wall, with path below, beside the Atlantic Ocean in Casablanca, with Hassan 2 mosque in the background

below: Would you kiss a shark?  Even one that claims to love his mom?mural of a shark with toothy grin, words that say I want a kiss. Shark is holding a broom, has smd written on chest, as well as a red heart with word mom on it black line drawing mural on a wall, with faces

below: Close up of a man’s eyes and nose, signed as Senzoclouds aka Senzo or Mr. Clouds.

mural, close up of man's eyes and nose by Senzoclouds, senzo, mr clouds mural with woman in purple shirt and turquoise hat, holding arm in front of her face, mural two men sitting in front of a mural with woman in pink shirt and turquoise hat, holding arm in front of her face

a breown animal in profile, mouth open wide as it roars. a bear maybe

a dog-like creature wearing a baseball cap is spray painting a tag on a wall, mural

glitter on Dircksenstrasse, Berlin

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The pictures on this page are all of paste-ups from artist SOBR‘s project, “It’s Time to Dance”.  They feature life size images of people dancing, alone, in couples, or in groups along with a lot of glitter.  There pictures were taken in August 2018 at which point the paper had been on the wall for a few months.

below: They share the wall space with a lot of other pasteups such as this chicken – dancing with the chicken?  Or maybe not because this chicken seems to have lost her head.

street art project, It's time to dance, by French street artist Sobr or Sobreon a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing,

below: Party time!

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, large group both men and women, glitter too

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one in a long skirt, one topless

below: The young girl in pink and purple is a paste up by TONA

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, women and glitter on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one with back showing

below: Even the little green guy is dancing but I doubt that it’s because of happiness.  His pockets are empty and he’s precariously balanced on a Euro.

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, on two arches side by side, one with just one person dancing, and the other side with a couple

emo & remote collaboration in Hollywood

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Emo (aka Eddie Mendieta) and Remote (aka Jay Bellicchi), both from south Florida, collaborated on a large mural in downtown Hollywood, Florida.

a mural by emo and remote, also known as Eddie Mendieta and Jay Bellicchi

Two women, one at each end, reaching for the sun in the middle.  Their hands and fingers are loosely wrapped by a vine that is also reaching for the sun.

part of a mural by emo and remote, large yellow and orange sun in the middle, a hand is reaching for the sun, a vine is growing up the hand and fingers towards the sun

close up of woman's face in mural, in grey tones, lying on her side, width of face is height of wall, blank expression on her face

emo and remote mural, rays of light form the sun on blue sky with finges reaching out, vines wrapped around fingers, small green leaves

one end of a mural by emo and remote in hollywood florida can be seen on the side of a building, as seen from across the street, car parked in front, tall palm tree