Kathmandu graffiti

These people who paint the walls make the streets look more interesting, joyful and brighter. Some of the graffiti in Kathmandu is made by professionals, but some drawings, as one can guess, are definitely made by kids

Miraculous stone icons

At the memorial complex "Kurapaty" (a wooden area in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 by the Soviet secret police) on the outskirts of Minsk there is an unusual exhibit of forty four stones with the images of different saints painted on them. The author of these icons is an icon-painter of the Minsk Holy Resurrection parish, Anatoly Kuznetsov. Critics commonly refer to his work as amateurish, and the church believes that the saints painted by him don't follow the canons of iconography. But the matter is that the artist calls his work "restoration of the image hidden in the stone," he simply sees with the inner sight what is already there on the stone, and only helps by painting and varnishing the image. Often Anatoly sees images of saints in his sleep or after prayers.

What I saw at the V&A museum

Altar piece, Florence, 1500-1510

My second favorite museum in London, after the British museum, is the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is the world's largest (more than 4 million items) and greatest museum of applied arts and design. Everyone can find something to his/her liking in this museum: pottery, clothing, jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculpture.

What I saw at the British Museum

The British Museum in London is one of the largest in the world. Its collection numbers more than 7 million items, which are exhibited in 95 galleries. To go through all the halls, it took me 4 days. If you are a tourist then you have just a few hours or maybe one day. So before going to the museum, it is better to think of what you really want to see, what will be interesting to you personally. And then coming to the place all you'll have do is to take the museum map at the entrance and go straight to the gallery you are interested in, and not to wander around many rooms of the museum.

The Art of African masks

The British and the Horniman museums has quite an interesting and impressive collection of African mask. After seeing it I wanted to know more about this form of ancient art. Originally the masks had a specific purpose and were much more than decorative objects. Masks can represent spirits, animals or mythological beings. Sometimes people wear masks with a costume as part of a ritual or performance. The purpose of a mask is not only to conceal the identity of the wearer, it actually creates a new identity - one from the spirit world. Many Africans use masks in private initiations, in the rituals of secret societies and in coming of age ceremonies. People use masks in public ceremonies such as funerals, harvest celebrations, acts of thanksgiving and in other rituals.

The art of Japanese netsuke

For the first time I heard about the netsuke in my childhood, in a Russian film. The plot of the film was forgotten with time but the unusual word and the figures that the word represented remained in my memory. These miniature sculptures amazed me with precision of work, small details, lively images, elegance.

Indian Art from the British Museum

The Indian collection of the British museum include pottery, paintings, traditional script work, daggers and a large display of sculptures among which there are carvings from the Great Stupa at Amaravati. Some objects in the collection date from the earliest civilizations of the Indus valley and are about 7000 years old. India is also represented in the money collections, with a large number of coins dating back to the 4th century BC.

Ravana, Tamil Nadu, 17c

British museum's collection of the Nepalese art

The British museum has a few pieces of art from Nepal, mostly dating 18-19 century. The most impressive from my point of view is this altar screen of metal set with bone, shell, precious and semi-precious stones (18-19c).