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signifier.bsky.social
Signifier
@signifier.bsky.social
180 followers 20 following 620 posts

quality writing on : art : design : media
also The Signifier : six : shot : gallery

🌐 https://medium.com/signifier

Editor & Curator: @remydean.bsky.social‬
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signifier.bsky.social
Claude Monet #BOTD 1840

Once reviled, now revered, his famous #paintings of Water Lilies reflect on the tragedy of war, express a hope for peace, & celebrate the joy of creation 🖌️

@kimvertue.bsky.social looks beyond the surface of Monet’s Final Masterworks of #art

🪷 medium.com/signifier/fo...
‘Water-Lilies’ (c.1916+) - a large painting by Claude Monet: "...a colourfield of subtlety. The mauve and gold, punctuated by red blossom and a deeper blue in one corner, allowed the eye to roam and the mind to immerse itself completely in contemplation of shimmering hues that only hinted at water-lilies and trails of weeping willow..."
November 14, 2025 at 1:51 AM
signifier.bsky.social
🦞 🐐 🛠️

'When Art Went Pop! in the USA'

"along with #Surrealism, #PopArt was among the 1st major Post-Modern movements to emerge in the mid-C20th & they share overlapping visual vocabulary"

@remydean.bsky.social 💥 medium.com/signifier/wh...

#art #ArtHistory #sculpture #history #illustration
"In 1962, with Five Feet of Colorful Tools, Jim Dine also crosses the boundaries between painting, collage and sculpture. We see an almost square canvas, with colourful silhouettes of DIY tools, such as hand saws, hammers, and screwdrivers, stencil-printed onto it along its upper edge. At the top of the canvas is a plank from which the tools hang on hooks."
November 12, 2025 at 10:54 AM
signifier.bsky.social
“In My Garden”

#art by Sharon Stone was our November 2023
#exhibition in The Signifier : six : shot : gallery :

6️⃣ medium.com/the-signifie...

#ContemporaryArt #painting
‘How I Love the Wind’ a five panel abstract painting made up of colourful gestural marks on a pale background by Sharon Stone [image courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery]
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
signifier.bsky.social
👃 ⚔️ 🎭

'Cyrano de Bergerac, a Literary Oddity?'

Samuel Belleville-Douelle reflets on how the author Edmond Rostand caused such a stir in fin de siècle France with his 5-act play in verse & why it still resonates today

📖 medium.com/signifier/cy...

#art #ArtHistory #literature #movies #history
illustration for ‘Aventures prodigieuses de Cyrano de Bergerac’ (1900) by Henriot, published by Épinal, Pellerin & Cie - Cyrano stands upon a globe of the Earth, with his back to us, surrounded by fantastical characters riding through the sky on magical creatures - for example a hare riding a winged rabbit, a cavalier riding a flying giant snail and another on a flying fish, a squirrel, moth, dragon, stalks, cranes and a coffee pot?
November 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
signifier.bsky.social
Are Ziggy Stardust & Thomas Jerome Newton the same person? Such parallels landed David Bowie a starring role in 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' (1976)

@remydean.bsky.social discusses how two iconic personae fused multimedia fictions in a Pop Art cycle of creative feedback

⚡ medium.com/signifier/wh...
David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton wearing a fedora and looking pensive in the closing scenes of the film 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' (1976)
November 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
signifier.bsky.social
“Excuse Me, But Where Do You Come From?”

#art by Victoria Si Wah Dong was our November 2022
#exhibition in The Signifier : six : shot : gallery :

6️⃣ medium.com/the-signifie...

#ContemporaryArt #illustration #printmaking #weaving
art by Victoria Si Wah Dong - a colourful collage of woven paper, uncontained by a frame with irregular border elements of photography and text can also be seen among the bright lines, curves and chequer patterns
November 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
signifier.bsky.social
Where we encounter art affects our responses to it. We may feel very differently about saleable objects presented as #art in a classy gallery than something unlabelled we encounter ‘in the wild’

Rodrigo S-C explores these notions by way of a short anecdotal sojourn...

🍷 medium.com/signifier/wh...
photograph by Rodrigo S-C of street graffiti dominated by large rounded white forms on vented metal panels
November 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🔥 🧨 🎆

remember. remember...

'Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge' (c.1858) from Utagawa Hiroshige's 'One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'

learn about the artist's 'Road to Fame' in our article by @kimvertue.bsky.social

💥 medium.com/signifier/hi...

#art #ArtHistory #illustration #イラスト #fireworks
the woodblock print 'Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge' (c.1858) from Utagawa Hiroshige's 'One Hundred Famous Views of Edo' in which a silhouetted crown watch falling fireworks by lantern light, reflected n an expanse of water
November 5, 2025 at 3:02 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🖼️ 🫟 🪟

A Small Thing But My Own

@kimvertue.bsky.social looks back on the technicolour emotions of Howard Hodgkin & how daubs of vivid colour & elusive forms represent intangible feelings about solid reality

💎 medium.com/signifier/a-...

#art #painting #ArtHistory #illustration #GraphicDesign
abstract painting by Howard Hodgkin called 'Night and Day' (1997-1999) is a frame in vivid green and yellow around a swathe of deep blue across orange...
November 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🌄 🚶 🪨

Richard Long’s #landscape #art is the land itself

@remydean.bsky.social shares a long walk through some of the ground-breaking artist's oeuvre that spans the globe in distance & could also be interpreted as spanning a timeline of geological epochs

〰️ medium.com/signifier/a-...
two black and white photographs of expansive barren landscapes with large geological features in the distance and subtly altered terrain in the foreground: in the left image, stones have been moved to form a paler, clearer, circular area and in the right image, a darker, wavy line has been produced by repeatedly walking in a sandy looking plain.
November 4, 2025 at 2:11 PM
signifier.bsky.social
💀 dark #art & witches & #ghosts 👻

this week, our popular & trending section is stuffed with spooky stories ideal for #Halloween reading...

🦇 medium.com/signifier
six thumbnails from the Signifier landing page showing some spooky images
October 29, 2025 at 9:14 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🛡️ ☀️ 🌪️

'The Dazzling Vortex'

Some Vorticists flirted with Fascism but their #art also helped defend the allied navies.

@remydean.bsky.social finds "a rare example of art, abstract art at that, having a proven & quantifiable function..."

🏁 medium.com/signifier/th...

#ArtHistory #history #design
two black and white photographs of ships painted with bold geometric patterns: USS ‘West Mahomet’, November 1918 and RMS ‘Mauretania’ bringing troops home from Europe, December 1918
October 17, 2025 at 12:38 PM
signifier.bsky.social
💧

'David Hockney: Making a Splash with the Bigger Picture'

@kimvertue.bsky.social dives into the large-scale, immersive #art of the people’s painter who continues to please with new work more than six decades later…

💦 medium.com/signifier/da...

#painitng #ArtHistory #history #photography
detail of the splash from the painting 'A Bigger Splash' (1967) by David Hockney
October 14, 2025 at 1:55 PM
signifier.bsky.social
it's #fungi season in the Eurozone so time to revisit:
'Beatrix Potter’s Field Studies' 🐸

@kimvertue.bsky.social on the #art & #science of a pioneering mycologist better known as the beloved children’s #author & #illustrator

🍄 medium.com/signifier/po...

#illustration #fungi #history #ArtHistory
two illustrations by Beatrix Potter: ‘Toad’s Tea Party’ (c.1905) - six toads gather around a small table, five sit on toadstools, and ‘Mycology Study’ - and accurate natural history illustration of fungi
October 13, 2025 at 11:47 AM
signifier.bsky.social
'Résumé'

#art by Géraldine Swatridge was our October 2021 #exhibition
in The Signifier : six : shot : gallery :

6️⃣ medium.com/the-signifie...

#ContemporaryArt #painting #drawing #landscape #illustration
two semi-abstract sketches in ink and watercolour by Géraldine Swatridge - one has tree forms in mainly orange, the other resembles a map of parkland in mainly greens
October 13, 2025 at 11:41 AM
signifier.bsky.social
'From Beyond the Grave — Unearthing Japan’s Forgotten Photographer'

@remydean.bsky.social finds a haunting beauty in the unique #art of Ukai Gyokusen which has finally surfaced after being, very literally, buried in the past

🔲 medium.com/signifier/fr...

#photography #ArtHistory #Japan #history
very damaged ambrotype photograph by Ukai Gyokusen - the image of a man with a shaven head can be discerned, a head and shoulders portrait, but a quarter of his face is obscured by damage to the image
October 9, 2025 at 4:31 PM
signifier.bsky.social
French painter Georges-Pierre Seurat used Pointillism & Divisionism to point out divisions in society: "these ‘noble workers’ were as important as the people in grand historical paintings hung in museums"

@remydean.bsky.social considers early Modernist Masterpieces

🚣 medium.com/signifier/th...
The first Pointillist painting - the green grass, for example, is made up of dots of pure colours including yellow, pink, blue and orange, yet our eye mixes these colours to give the vivid grass green of summer meadows - though it is used alongside smoother, blended brushstrokes here - the scale of the figures in the group of bathers is inconsistent...
October 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM
signifier.bsky.social
'Victoriana-o-rama'

Lawrence Alma-Tadema enjoyed success in his lifetime but his #art suffered the the vagaries of fickle fashion since his death… @remydean.bsky.social discusses the life & times of an artist who influenced #comics #illustration & Hollywood #movies

🖼️ medium.com/signifier/vi...
‘The Finding of Moses’ (1904) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - historical painting of scene of a procession in which a lady is carried in a chair on the shoulders of servants and a baby in a wicker basket is held aloft
September 29, 2025 at 12:31 AM
signifier.bsky.social
👞 🩰 👢

'Whose Shoes?'

@remydean.bsky.social takes us on a quick-step through some shoe symbolism in #art & #culture along the path from innocence to experience... from #FairyTales to #horror films

👠 medium.com/signifier/wh...

#art #ArtHistory #shoes #illustration #イラスト #fashion #movies #history
pop culture quoting red shoes cinematic imagery: album covers for 'Eldorado' by E.L.O. and 'The Red Shoes' by Kate Bush
September 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
signifier.bsky.social
⚔️ 🐲 🐻

'Sutton Hoo, a Great Warrior’s Treasure'

@kimvertue.bsky.social uncovers mystique and myth surrounding Britain's most significant Anglo-Saxon ship burial and its surprisingly sophisticated artefacts

⛏️ medium.com/signifier/su...

#art #design #ArtHistory #history
"...purse lid decorated with elaborate motifs, including interlaced animals and wolves on either side of a human figure, also adorned with gold and garnet inlays. The use of Millefiori glass also indicates technical sophistication. These beads are produced by placing glass rods of different colours together and cutting across them to reveal a chequered effect" - more description and analysis in article via link in post
September 27, 2025 at 3:13 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🕰️ 🐜 🦜

'Do You Know What’s Really Surreal?'

…and do you know your Veristic #Surrealism from your Automatist or Organic? @remydean.bsky.social offers a brief introduction to the first major movement in Postmodern #art

👁️ medium.com/signifier/a0...

#ArtHistory #history #painting #sculpture #movies
Alberto Giacometti’s 'The Palace at 4 a.m.' is a small seemingly fragile construction of wood, glass, wire and string. This is from Giacometti’s earlier period when he was experimenting with the surreal. The rooms of a house are suggested by a framework of slender wooden dowels and these rooms are populated by small carvings: a simple feminine figure, a detailed human backbone, an organic seed-like form and a skeletal bird.
September 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
signifier.bsky.social
🦒 🦁 🦉

'The Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hieronymus Bosch

@remydean.bsky.social explores how #fantasy #art from the first surrealist tells the story of heaven and hell

🥚 medium.com/signifier/ke...

#ArtHistory #illustration #history
detail from the left panel showing biomorphic structures and a variety of animals, real and mythical, in a landscape - more description and analysis in article via link in post
September 19, 2025 at 1:32 PM
signifier.bsky.social
'Getting to Know Jean-Paul Riopelle'

Rodrigo S-C explores the intentions & interpretations of one of Canada’s most significant twentieth-century artists

🧊 medium.com/signifier/ge...

#art #ArtHistory #painting #history
‘Figure libre-parure 1967’ is an abstract painting by Jean-Paul Riopelle. Large canvas with mainly bold black and grey gestural marks with flashes of many other colours. Photographed by Rodrigo S-C for cataloguing purposes.
September 16, 2025 at 11:59 AM
signifier.bsky.social
Our article about artist Rose Garrard, designer of the robots. may be of interest? Her brief from BBC production designer, Ken Sharpe, had been to “create a robot that was so classically beautiful that it would seem sinister...”

🤖 medium.com/signifier/es...

TY @remydean.bsky.social
Robot mask as seen in ‘The Robots of Death’ (1977) designed by Rose Garrard and the ‘Malvhina’ fountain during the 2007 Well-Dressing festival, photographed by Bob Embleton
September 16, 2025 at 11:52 AM
signifier.bsky.social
'Japanese #Kawaii Culture: Small & Adorable Things Reflect Your Heart'

@yuriminamide.bsky.social explores the origins of a soft power built by Japanese artists that now influences the world…

🎀 medium.com/signifier/ja...

#Japan #cats #manga #illustration #イラスト #art #ArtHistory #design
two classical Japanese prints: ‘Looks Annoying, Mannerisms of a Girl from the Kansei Period’ by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1888) shows a young woman petting a white cat and ‘New Plate of Cats’ Hot Spring’ by Utagawa Yoshifuji (1888) shows anthropomorphised cats running and enjoying a bathhouse...
September 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM