 Today’s ArtDrop is a post-impressionist oil painting portrait of ‘Raminou Sitting on a Cloth’ by Suzanne Valadon.
The painting features a lavishly staged still life or portrait backdrop staged with a rich red carpet on the floor and a green, ivory, and butterscotch carpet hung at a slant. A box is swathed loosely in a beige cloth. Raminou the orange cat perches perfectly atop the swaddled box and directs his gaze at us as the artist captures his eminent visage. Did Raminou refuse to budge when Valadon finished staging the background for a still life? Did he keep batting items off the cloth? Was he just a really enthusiastic sitter?
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 Today’s ArtDrop is the 'Winter Egg, 1913’ created as a gift for a member for the Romanov family by the House of Fabergé.
The photo shows a sweet little basket of yellow and white flowers made out of precious metals and gemstones. To the right of it is the exquisite case in the shape of an egg sitting on a block of ice that held the trinket. The egg and ice were carved from rock crystal. The egg is adorned with stunning frost patterns in diamonds and precious metal. Icicles are dripping down the block of ice made out of links of little diamonds. This absolute world treasure is going to auction in December, if you need a gift for the empress in your life.  Black Friday’s ArtDrop is a contemporary black water installation called ‘Descension’ by Anish Kapoor.
The image shows a large gallery space with a rustic wood plank floor. In the middle of the gallery is a 3-meter wide circle cut out of the floor. Within is a swirling pool of water creating a black whirlpool. A man stands about 1 meter from the edge of the hole gazing down into the piece. The image is by Galleria Continua.  Thanksgiving’s ArtDrop is a Romantic oil painting from 1820 ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ by John Martin. This painting lives at Yale University’s Center for British Art. I want to go visit it.
This painting looks like a fantasy architectural rendering from an epic video game. We see a terrace raised above a mammoth palace courtyard. The architecture features rows of chunky solid stone columns in two tiers. Ahead of us massive corbel arches recede for miles into the interior of the grand palace. Beyond the palace in the city is a monumental spiral tower and a multitiered ziggurat. People crawl around the architecture like ants. On the terrace in the foreground, the king is having a feast. His courtiers are swooning dramatically from something a central figure in black is saying. It feels like he is cursing everybody or is delivering very bad news. Adding to the drama, the tower and the ziggurat are getting swallowed by an approaching tempest that is about to descend on the palace. In the top right, the moon is eclipsed by a black mass further ratcheting up the sense of dooooooooom.  Today’s ArtDrop is a feminist installation created from 1974-79 by Judy Chicago called ‘The Dinner Party.’
The installation consists of a triangular banqueting table set with 39 distinct place settings and embellished runners that celebrate the work and memorialize important women in western history. The work had a huge impact because it called out the patriarchal view of history that minimized the contribution and leadership of women through the ages. The piece is confrontational because the sculpted plates resemble women’s genitals.  Today’s ArtDrop is the ‘Black Hours’ manuscript made in Bruges in 1475-1480.
This magnificent book is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum: https://www.themorgan.org/collection/Black-Hours This excerpt of the description of the prayer book from their website explains how it was made: "This Book of Hours, referred to as the Black Hours, is one of a small handful of manuscripts written and illuminated on vellum that is stained or painted black. The result is quite arresting. The text is written in silver and gold, with gilt initials and line endings composed of chartreuse panels enlivened with yellow filigree. Gold foliage on a monochromatic blue background makes up the borders. The miniatures are executed in a restricted palette of blue, old rose, and light flesh tones, with dashes of green, gray, and white. The solid black background is utilized to great advantage, especially by means of gold highlighting."  Today’s ArtDrop is an oil painting of Rudolf II the Holy Roman Emperor, as ‘Vertumnus’ the Roman god of seasons, fruit trees and gardens. This entertaining style of painting was called “scherzo” at the time, but the artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, is usually classified as a Mannerist. This editor also clumps him in with Grotesque art.
The image shows a parody of a formal head and shoulders portrait built entirely from still life elements of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. For example, a pear stands in for the nose. The irises of the eyes are blueberries. The round and rosy cheeks are a rendered apples. The bottom lip is built from two red cherries. The overall impression is one of fecundity and plenty embodied by the Head of State.  Today’s ArtDrop is a contemporary semiabstract neo-Rococo painting, ‘Both Sides Now' by Flora Yukhnovich from 2019.
The image shows a dynamic semiabstract painting in the style of a Rococo vision of a mythical apparition. The work is painted in yellows, teals, and browns and fleshy areas that suggest supporting divine beings. There is a focal point in the center that feels like a visit from Apollo in his flying chariot as he travels across the sky above you. Beneath the focal point are suggested figures of putti or angels that lead attention to the main character above. All of the composition and devices of realistically rendered rococo painting are abstracted here but still retain a sense of grandiose lightness, movement and narrative.  Charlie Dean poses for a portrait at his mail box at 2741 N. Drake St. in Logan Square on Nov. 19, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago. Read the article at BlockClub Chicago: https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/21/chicago-artist-starts-his-own-postal-service-and-will-deliver-and-read-mail-to-anyone-for-free/
Today’s ArtDrop is a conceptual art project ‘Charlie Dean’s Postal Service’ by Chicago artist Charlie Dean. The artwork requires people to write messages on the provided paper providing the receiver and address. Wearing his official uniform and driving the Charlie Dean Postal Service Van, Dean will hand deliver the message for free and personally read it to them. How sweet is that? Send one to your Grandma in the care home. Today’s ArtDrop is, believe it or not, a solid gold toilet called ‘America’ by Maurizio Cattelan. This editor believes it is the artist’s best work so far.
An updated version of the ‘America’ stolen from Blenheim Palace just sold for the current value of the gold at auction to the parent company of Ripley’s Believe it or Not. It may become part of a tourist attraction...which seems fitting. Ask yourself why the artist has chosen a golden toilet as a metaphor for America and whether you agree with him. |
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