Sunday, August 23, 2026

My connection to Van Gogh’s Starry Night

The Starry Night, June 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York

My connection to Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Finding peace, beauty, and meaning in Vincent van Gogh’s turbulent world and luminous brushstrokes

Orsolya Antoni

12 February 2026

Vincent van Gogh holds a special place as my second favorite Dutch painter, celebrated for his emotionally charged and vibrant use of color. His iconic masterpiece, 'The Starry Night,' has been a constant source of inspiration in my life, with its swirling skies and deep emotional resonance captivating my imagination. Van Gogh's remarkable talent for capturing the beauty of his world, often reflecting his own struggles, strikes a chord within me. 'The Starry Night' is a culmination of his artistic journey, a representation of his unique style and emotional depth. Each time I gaze at his artwork, I uncover new details and layers that invite me to reflect and delve deeper, ensuring his presence remains a significant part of my artistic journey.

Gallery employees pose with Love is in the Bin by Banksy, photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Banksy's 'Love is in the Bin': art vs. commercialization

Exploring the impact and meaning behind Banksy's most controversial artwork

Orsolya Antoni
12 January 2025

Banksy is my favourite street artist because of his unique way of addressing everyday life and conflicts. When I was working for a very well-known auction house, I had the opportunity to see some of his work, especially 'Girl with Balloon,' which was shredded at the auction and renamed to 'Love is in the Bin.' This incident, where the artwork self-destructed after being sold, was a bold and intriguing statement by Banksy. It was a direct challenge to the commercialization of art, a practice that often places more value on the price tag than the artistic message and the value we place on it. This incident not only made headlines but also sparked a global conversation about the true value of art and the role of the art market in determining it. The shredded 'Girl with Balloon' became a new piece of art, 'Love is in the Bin,' which further emphasized Banksy's critique of the art market's focus on monetary value over artistic expression.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, dated c. 1665

Vermeer's art: the enigma of "Girl with the pearl earring"

Discovering the mastery of Johannes Vermeer and the allure of his iconic painting in Amsterdam

Orsolya Antoni
12 September 2024

In 2023, my good friend and I had the pleasure of seeing the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. We had a lot of fun while queuing up to buy the tickets, and we met a few very unique and interesting people. Among them was an 85-year-old Brazilian man, a former musician who now spends his time traveling the world. He had a special promise to keep for his granddaughter—a visit to the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. His story was fascinating, and it made us wonder about the connection he saw between his life, his music, and Vermeer's art. This encounter, along with the excitement of seeing Vermeer's art up close, made the experience even more memorable.

Scott Lund’s discovery unites Da Vinci’s masterpieces

The Tempietto is a small commemorative tomb (martyrium) designed by Donato Bramante, to mark the location of the crucifixion of St Peter, San Pietro in Montorio, in Rome, Italy

Scott Lund’s discovery unites Da Vinci’s masterpieces

The hidden connection between the Mona Lisa and Salvator Mundi

31 DECEMBER 2024

BRENDA LEE BOHEN

Investigative historian Scott Lund has revealed that Salvator Mundi and the Mona Lisa were intended to be seen together as one single image. Leonardo Da Vinci’s two paintings, a brilliant combination of astronomy and mathematics, were projected together into one divine image with a camera obscura, claims Lund, who in 2011 discovered a ley line in the Mona Lisa landscape pointing directly 29.5 km southeast from the Vatican to the primary cult site of Roman goddess Diana at Lake Nemi. More importantly, on the sacred Christmas morning of the Vatican's grand Jubilee year in 1500 AD, the ley line momentarily extended toward the center of our galaxy, indicated by the star Kaus Australis, which peeked over the horizon in simultaneous conjunction with the Sun. Lund says Leonardo da Vinci envisioned the Mona Lisa's face being struck by the first light of that dawn as she gazed at the core of our Milky Way from Bramante's Tempietto atop Rome's Janiculum hill.Muas

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy watching military manoeuvres in 1938

The legal construction of racism in fascist Italy

Antisemitism, racial doctrine, and the marginalization of Italian Jews

15 MARCH 2026,

BRENDA LEE BOHEN

With the onset of World War I (1915-1918), Roman Jews, now full Italian citizens, were called upon to serve their country. All Jewish males of conscription age participated in the Great War. Italy had 50 Jewish generals and several military chaplains who were rabbis.

The man who forgot himself / Life before and after total amnesia

Closeup of Eric Lampaert with a wide grin and his eyes screwed up — ‘Life is much better, but I feel very alien’ … Eric Lampaert. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

The man who forgot himself: life before and after total amnesia

In 2019 Eric Lampaert woke up unable to recognise his friends, his parents, even his own name. After decades of anxiety, abandonment and bullying, was his mind just trying to shield him from his past?

Paula Cocozza

On the day his life changed, Eric Lampaert woke up and saw his hands. What amazed him was that they were moving in front of him, and he appeared to be the person in control of them. We’re drinking coffee in the Groucho Club in London, and at this point he lets go of his cup and wriggles his fingers. Lampaert is an actor and standup whose work has a strong clowning dimension. His hands always seemed to have minds of their own – and, sometimes, strong differences of opinion. But as he got out of bed that fateful morning, marvelling at the magical things on the ends of his arms, he felt only wonder. What he didn’t yet know was that he had lost his memory, and his life would no longer feel like his own.

Makeda … ‘It’s enough to know I can look like this.’ Photograph: Elizabeth Okoh

‘It was no longer a gift for my husband. It was all for me’: four women on how boudoir photography changed their lives

Now a hugely popular photographic genre, many women pay thousands to have intimate portraits taken of themselves by a professional. What do they get out of it?

Paula Cocozza

27 November 2025

Afew hours into Brittany Witt’s boudoir shoot, with the mimosas kicking in and the music going strong, the photographer asked: “How do we feel about some completely nude photos?” Witt was lying on the bed in lingerie, in a studio in Texas, and hadn’t considered nudity an option. “I was like: ‘OK, we’re on this trust path.’” She undressed. The photographer, JoAnna Moore, covered Witt with body oil and squirted her with water, then asked her “to crawl across the floor with my full trust,” Witt says. “I did so. The pose was nude, and it was completely open. I wasn’t covered with a sheet. It was all out, it was all open, and it brought that worst level of self-doubt. I was terrified.”

The cover of the sheet music for Debussy’s La Mer, 1905. Photograph: DEA/G Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images

Tuesday 21 January 2025

ou are never far from a great wave. Its foaming crest froths and sputters like ghostly fingers or monstrous claws raking over tote bags and journals. You can probably find it miniaturised in your emoji keyboard on your phone, and fading on a mouse mat or pair of socks somewhere nearby. The image – officially known as Under the Wave off Kanagawa, from Katsushika Hokusai’s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji – depicts small boats facing down a large wave, and almost two centuries after its creation its appeal spans generations, continents, and socioeconomic bands.

‘Am I 68? 69?’ Irvine Welsh on growing old, getting clean, bashing out his new novel – and flirting with guns

A bald-headed man in a blue jumper looking quizzically at the camera

‘My mother could be very critical of my books.’ Photograph: David Levene/

The big interview

Interview

‘Am I 68? 69?’ Irvine Welsh on growing old, getting clean, bashing out his new novel – and flirting with guns

Three decades after he channelled his heroin addiction into the cult classic Trainspotting, the Scottish author has discovered the joys of yoga, breathwork and standing desks. But is he quite as ‘Zen’ as he claims?

By rights, Irvine Welsh ought to be photographed somewhere gritty, looking grumpy, he says: “That’s the brand.” Beside a graffitied wall or at the docks, with a beanie pulled low, and definitely not smiling. But here he is, clear-skinned and wholesome in shorts and a T-shirt, drinking tea and – it’s hard to think of anything more off-brand – talking about the health benefits of yoga. Given his reputation for having lived in the worlds his books portray, he should or could look a lot worse. He guffaws at this, eyes a delighted blue, and repeats the phrase as if he’s found a new personal tagline: “Could look a lot worse!”

‘Proust is the godfather of fashion’: what writers’ clothes reveal about them

This article is more than 9 years old

Samuel Beckett had a Gucci bag; Dorothy Parker worked for Vogue. A new book on writers’ style uncovers the hidden links between clothes and prose

Paula Cocozza
Sunday 16 July 2017

The title reads like a provocation: Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore. What? Shouldn’t authors, especially “legendary” ones, be exempt from fashion scrutiny? Surely we should look at their words, not their outfits. If they produced great works of art, who cares how they dressed?

Sunday, August 23, 2026