Art

In the 19th-century art world, Jules Joseph Lefebvre was the ultimate symbol of technical mastery. He understood anatomy better than most surgeons and created canvases so polished that every trace of a brushstroke vanished into thin air.

But was this technical perfection truly "Art," or merely "Mechanical Skill"?

1. A Master Technician, A Conservative Artist:

In his famous work La Vérité (The Truth), Lefebvre depicts a woman holding a mirror. However, a sharp critique remains: he reduced "truth" to skin and bone, failing to capture the soul. He is the prime example of an artist trapped in technicism, confusing mathematical precision with true aesthetic beauty.

2. A Barrier to Innovation:

Have you ever wondered how to fit more than 100 figures into a frame without tiring the viewer’s eyes?

Pieter Bruegel the Elder provided an ingenious answer to this design challenge in his masterpiece, “Wedding Dance” (1566). More than a rustic painting, this work is an engineered map of visual elements:

Bruegel used a curved path to arrange the people. This technique allows our eyes to travel throughout the painting, rather than fixating on one point, and to sense the dynamism of the dance.

If you look closely at the red spots on the clothes, you will notice that they are not randomly distributed. Bruegel has created a visual “rhythm” by cleverly distributing the red color, just like musical notes, leading your gaze from foreground to background.

In contrast to the elegance of the Italian Renaissance, Bruegel emphasizes cylindrical and heavy forms. This clever choice of figure design conveys …

Pluribus is more than a sci‑fi drama; it’s a philosophical experience that pushes us to rethink identity, choice, and collective meaning. In every scene you feel the borders between “I” and “we” fading, and a simple yet profound question arises: if information, memories, and behaviors can be rapidly homogenized, what becomes of the individual?

One striking reading for me is that artificial intelligence can play the role of that “identity virus” — a system that, by collecting and consolidating data, blurs the lines of individuality and raises new questions about responsibility, freedom, and meaning. This comparison is not merely a technological alarm; it’s an invitation to serious conversation about how we design, govern, and ethically shape the technologies that form our identities.

Important note: this is just one interpretation of the work and not necessarily the definitive message of the creators.

Join the conversation: if you’ve watched Pluribus or have…

American artist David Salle, born in 1952, is one of the key figures who revived postmodern painting in the early 1980s with a bold and chaotic style.

If you are looking to understand contemporary art and the transition from rigid abstraction to chaotic visual narrative, Salle’s work is essential.

He is a master of multi-layered and simultaneous compositions. In a Salle painting, “High Art” images are juxtaposed with “Low Culture” images (such as advertisements or black-and-white photographs). This combination breaks down traditional boundaries and reflects a world saturated with media.

Using the technique of appropriation, he juxtaposes different painting styles and fragments of art history to create a narrative ambiguity. His works are like a fast-paced cinematic montage that forces the viewer to connect the separate pieces.

In a period when painting was in doubt, Salle, along with artists such as Julian Schnabel, brought Expressionism and the figure back into…