Welcome to Art by Email

Through this sequence of email, we will be acquainted with a variety of art works. In every email a new painting, print or photograph is talked about. We will visit famous paintings like The Treachery of Images by René Magritte, The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, and The Sleep of Reason Creates Monsters by Francisco Goya. But we will also encounter potentially more unknown artists like the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, the Italian Joseph Stella, and the female Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola. Although less talked about in the public sphere, perhaps, they hold an ocean of interesting perspectives and experiences, captured in their art, just waiting for us to take part in their exploration of the world.

We will—of course—introduce the responsible artist for each piece of art, but this is meant only as a backdrop. The main thing is to contemplate the actual piece of art. What it entails. What it may convey in terms of meaning in present-day society. In many of the emails, the artistic expressions are expanded by means of philosophy. One of the core functions of art is to comment on the society or world around, and the painters, it seems, more often than not have personal convictions about the structure and meaning in the world they live in. Philosophy, then, seems to be the perfect tool for investigating and clarifying those convictions.

At the end of each post is a set of questions. This is meant as an invitation to further reflection related to the presented artwork and as a means to employ the sentiment or the perspective that the art conveys, in a more concrete manner.

We hope you take the time to pause in your busy life while reading the emails and spend whatever time you can afford to dwell on the selected artworks.

We wish you happy reading!