Rumor or Reality? Moscow Conceptualism as a Challenge for our Contemporary Art Canon What is Moscow Conceptualism? A late Soviet art movement that is part of our contemporary art canon or a rumor? Cultural historian Dorine Schellens sheds light on this question by looking at the interconnection between academic and artistic worlds. Dorine Schellens • December 05, 2019
“Whatever Will Be Will Be” in Spanish Plays When you are fluent in a language, you can still make mistakes. This is what happened to the Dutch playwright Theodore Rodenburgh when he adopted his life’s motto “Chi sara sara”. Tim Vergeer • November 28, 2019
Drawn to deviance: the deformed body exhibited How and why is a body we see as ‘deformed’ able to arouse strong affective and aesthetic responses? Andries Hiskes explores how, where, and when a body is presented to us matters in how we experience it through a discussion of the film The Elephant Man. Andries Hiskes • November 21, 2019
Sex in Leiden’s Student Culture since the Golden Age How different were students during the Dutch Golden Age? Not that much actually. Tim Vergeer discusses some historical and literary examples of the sexual adventures of some of Leiden’s students in the seventeenth century (and after). Tim Vergeer • November 07, 2019
‘Je kunt me vinden in de Westside’: Expressions of Local Identity in Contemporary Dutch Hip-hop Dutch hip-hop artists continuously invite us to their neighborhoods and districts through their music. What do we hear when we listen to the language of the streets? Aafje de Roest • October 31, 2019
The Crux of the Matter: The Truths and Fictions of Crucifixions How did Roman crucifixions work? And did medieval artists depict the Crucifixion accurately? An ancient historian and a medievalist combine forces to shed their light on matters of the cross. Lieke Smits and Renske Janssen • October 17, 2019
#OTD: Cyclical Experiences of Time in the Digital Age Today, 3 October, is the official city holiday Leiden's Ontzet. Why do we care so much about anniversaries of past events, and how are they commemorated on digital media? Lieke Smits • October 03, 2019
The Omval Defaced: Thoughts on Rembrandt’s Anonymous Interlocutor This post examines a curious late state of Rembrandt's etching, The Omval—largely dismissed in the literature as a defacement or mutilation of the copperplate—and asks what we might gain from giving it another look. Jun Nakamura • September 27, 2019
Heroes Are History When Thomas Carlyle presented On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History it was an instant success. The book has more or less disappeared from the bookshelves, but it’s worth a read, and I’ll tell you why. Leanne Jansen • September 19, 2019 • 1 comment
