Tag: art

Neanderthals created the world’s oldest cave art

Neanderthals didn’t just survive Europe’s Ice Age landscapes – they ventured into deep caves and made art. What they left isn’t figurative like the later animal scenes of Homo sapiens.

Instead, it is a repertoire of hand stencils, geometric signs, finger-drawn lines, and even built structures. This type of artmaking points to creative intent and symbolic behavior long before our species arrived.

The latest synthesis of discoveries from France and Spain shows that these nonfigurative markings and installations predate modern humans in western Europe by tens of millennia.

The research moves the long-running debate about Neanderthal cognition from speculation to evidence.

Neanderthal art decoded

All confirmed examples so far are nonfigurative – no animals or humans. Instead we see hand stencils made by blowing pigment over a hand, “finger flutings” pressed into soft cave surfaces, linear and geometric motifs, and purposeful arrangements of cave materials.

Neanderthals inhabited western Eurasia from about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago and have often been caricatured as the archetypal “cavemen.”

Questions about their cognitive and behavioral sophistication persist, and whether they produced art sits at the center of that debate.

Despite proof that Neanderthals used pigments and made jewelry, some researchers resisted the idea that they explored deep cave systems to create lasting imagery.

New dating work from researchers at Université de Bordeaux has shifted that view. In three Spanish caves – La Pasiega (Cantabria), Maltravieso (Extremadura), and Ardales (Málaga) – researchers documented linear signs, geometric shapes, hand stencils, and handprints made with pigments.

At La Roche-Cotard in France’s Loire Valley, Neanderthals left suites of lines and shapes in finger flutings (the trails left when fingers move through soft cave mud).

Testing Neanderthal creativity

Deep inside the Bruniquel Cave in southwest France, Neanderthals broke off stalactites into similarly sized sections and assembled them into a large oval structure, then lit fires on top.

It was not a shelter but something stranger – and if you saw it in a contemporary gallery, you might well call it “installation art.”

Now that well-dated examples exist in Spain and France, more finds are likely. The challenge is timekeeping: establishing reliable ages for Paleolithic cave art is technically difficult and often controversial.

Stylistic comparisons and links to excavated artifacts can help, but they only go so far.

Aging art in stone

There are three main ways to anchor ages. First, if black pigment is charcoal, radiocarbon can date when the wood burned.

But many black figures were drawn with mineral pigments (for example, manganese), which can’t be radiocarbon dated, and even genuine charcoal carries a risk. The date reflects when the wood died, not when someone used it.

Second, calcite flowstone (stalactites and stalagmites) that overgrows art is a natural time cap. Uranium–thorium dating can pin down when the calcite formed, giving a minimum age for the pigment or scoring beneath it.

Using this method, researchers dated calcite on top of red motifs in La Pasiega, Maltravieso, and Ardales to older than ~64,000 years.

Even at that youngest bound, the imagery predates the first Homo sapiens in Iberia by at least ~22,000 years, and Middle Paleolithic archaeology – the Neanderthals’ “calling card” – is abundant in all three caves.

Keep reading

“Art Must Always Tell The Truth”

Popular artist Banksy created a graffiti mural in London depicting the current state of the UK censorship system using the courts to trample the rights of British citizens…

As ‘sundance’ writes at TheConservativeTreeHouse.com, it did not take long for the authorities to cover the mural and eventually attempt to remove it.

I particularly like the fact the govt turned the CCTV camera, so they can monitor who might visit the scene of the criminal dissent.

Apparently, the British government doesn’t quite see the irony.

Keep reading

New Artwork by British Street Artist Banksy Appears on the Wall of Royal Courts of Justice, in London – Is Immediately Covered Up, as Police Weigh Charges of ‘Criminal Damage’

The Met Police is doing the work of promoting the new Banksy.

For decades, the pseudonymous street artist Banksy, whose real identity remains unconfirmed, has thrived on controversy – and with his last mural artwork, things aren’t any different.

The new Banksy shows a judge hitting a fallen protester with his gavel, and was painted on the front wall of the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The image was rapidly covered up by British officials.

Daily Mail reported:

“Security guards were seen patrolling in front of a screen concealing the mural now confirmed as being by the guerilla graffiti artist as his latest creation.

He shared an image of it on his Instagram page, after it was stenciled on an external wall of the Queen’s Building but swiftly hidden by large sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers.”

Keep reading

Argentina charges daughter of World War II Nazi for concealing decades-old art theft

The daughter and son-in-law of a Nazi who stole art from European Jews during World War II were charged in an Argentine court on Sept 4 with hiding numerous works, including 22 by French painter Henri Matisse.

The pair came into the spotlight after an 18th century painting stolen from a Dutch art collector was 

spotted in an Argentine property ad in August, only to vanish once again.

“Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque painter Giuseppe Ghislandi was missing for eight decades before being photographed in the home of a daughter of Nazi Friedrich Kadgien, who had fled to Argentina after the war and died there in 1978.

Police opened an investigation and conducted multiple raids in search of the painting, only to find 22 works from the 1940s by Matisse (1869-1954), and others whose origins have yet to be determined.

The artworks were found in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata in possession of members of the Kadgien family, officials said.

Keep reading

More Age Verification Fallout: Artist Blogs Blocked, Porn Data Leaked, Traffic Boosts for Noncompliant Sites

As more places around the world—including U.S. states—pass laws requiring age checks around the internet, we’re continuing to see a slew of unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences. The latest round includes some U.S. residents being blocked from a blogging platform, French folks in dangers of their porn viewing habits being leaked, and porn websites that violate the law in the U.K. being rewarded with big boosts in web traffic.

Let’s start closest to home.

Another website is blocking access to Mississippi residents in response to the state’s age verification and online harm prevention law taking effect.

We’ve already seen some fallout from this law, including the social media platform Bluesky beginning to block Mississippi residents.

Now, Dreamwidth Studios—a blogging platform meant for artists (and one of the parties represented by tech trade group NetChoice in a challenge to the Mississippi law)—is also blocking access for people in Mississippi, as well as preventing minors in Tennessee from opening new accounts.

“People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we’ll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential,” Dreamwidth says on its website.

The company announced its new Mississippi policy on August 26, saying, “Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don’t want to do this.” But “the Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who’s under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users’ parents to allow them to finish creating an account.””

Dreamwidth goes on:

[The Mississippi law] also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn’t like it — which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn’t like, you’re absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don’t want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can’t: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity.”

Mississippi users of Dreamwidth aren’t the only ones with restricted access. The platform will also “prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk,” it said. “The judge in our challenge to Tennessee’s social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds,” Dreamwidth posted. “The Tennessee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it’s still a risk to us.”

Dreamwidth’s moves further highlight how age verification laws like the ones enacted by Mississippi and Tennessee will come down harder on small and niche platforms than on big tech companies.

Keep reading

Painting stolen by Nazis during WWII believed discovered in Argentine real estate listing

An 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis during WWII is believed to have resurfaced in the most unexpected place: hanging above a sofa in a coastal Argentinian home and discovered not by law enforcement or a museum, but spotted in a photo on a real estate website.

The painting, “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch-Jewish art dealer whose collection of more than 1,100 works was seized after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Senior Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring, acquired hundreds of pieces, according to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE).

The potential discovery is the result of years of work by Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) investigative journalists Cyril Rosman, Paul Post and Peter Schouten, who have been pursuing the case for nearly a decade.

Rosman said the team began tracing Friedrich Kadgien, Göring’s financial adviser and close confidant, several years ago.

“Kadgien escaped to South America at the end of the war,” Rosman told ABC News. “We knew from archival documents that he brought diamonds, jewelry, and two stolen paintings with him. We’ve spent years trying to piece together his life here and where those paintings ended up.”

Keep reading

Pro-Trump Christian: Kennedy Center Fired Me Over My Religious Beliefs

A prominent pro-Trump Christian says he was fired from his role as vice president of the Kennedy Center just because he refused to renounce his belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Floyd Brown, the founder of Western Journal, had been recruited about a month ago to serve as the performing arts center’s vice president.

He accused Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell, who is married to a man, of being intimidated by a CNN hit piece that highlighted what the news network called Brown’s anti-gay rhetoric.

He asked to speak to Grenell for an explanation, but his request was rejected. The Kennedy Center has not responded to inquiries about the allegations.

Brown said “the only explanation is the one given to me at the time of my firing. ‘Floyd, you must recant your belief in traditional marriage and your past statements on the topic, or you will be fired.’ Needless to say, I refused to recant and was shown the door. My beliefs are much more common to Biblical Christianity.”

CNN’s KFile published the attack on Brown Thursday titled, “Far-Right with history of anti-gay comments fired from leadership role at Kennedy Center after CNN investigation.”

Brown said the article, which is behind a paywall, rehashed “past writings and statements about traditional marriage and homosexual influence in the GOP.”

Brown released a statement CNN in response to their hit piece.

“It is an honor to work at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the many amazing people who are employed here. Comments rooted in my personal Christian views, which I have made in the past, have no impact upon my work here at the Kennedy Center nor do they impinge on my interactions with colleagues who do incredible work for the patrons of the Center. As a Christian I am called to work with others of different beliefs and worldviews.”

Brown said there was no intention to offend anyone with his Christian beliefs.

Keep reading

Ric Grenell Reveals Insane Amount Of Fake Revenue Reportedly Discovered in Kennedy Center’s Books

Ric Grenell, the Interim Executive Director of the Kennedy Center, said an internal investigation reportedly found $26 million in fake revenue, adding that “people need to be prosecuted.”

“Our great new CFO [Donna Arduin] went through the 2024 and 2025 budgets of the Kennedy Center and found $26 million in phantom revenue,” Grenell said in a clip shared on X on Wednesday from a recent event at the White House for the famed venue.

“Fake revenue,” he added. “It’s criminal. We are going to refer this to the U.S. Attorney’s office here [Washington, D.C.]. We are lucky enough to have the Attorney General on the board of the Kennedy Center, who heard all the details today. She [Judge Jeanine Pirro] heard the details, and this is unacceptable in America to have … fraud on previous donors.”

Grenell recently spoke to Mark Halperin on his “2 Way” podcast, and the former U.S. ambassador to Germany and U.S. Envoy for Special Missions did not hold back about the alleged fraud they had discovered, promising that there would be an investigation by the Department of Justice and the FBI into the matter.

“What we just found, and we’re going to turn over to DOJ and the FBI for an investigation … our forensic new CFO went through the books for ’24 and ’25, found $26 million in phantom revenue,” Grenell said. “And so the problem that we have with $26 million in phantom revenue is they were telling the board that we had this revenue–We’re going to release all of the details to the FBI and to DOJ to look at this because it’s fraud.”

“They were literally lying about how the finances were,” he added. “And let me just finish with this, for the last nine months, well before we got there, we have been paying the staff at the Kennedy Center through debt reserves.

Keep reading

CCP Mounting Unrestricted Warfare to Suppress Shen Yun, Lawmaker Says

The Chinese regime’s growing campaign to suppress a New York-based performing arts firm is tantamount to unrestricted warfare, according to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).

“They fight on every single inch of the battlefield,” Perry told The Epoch Times, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

Unrestricted warfare is a doctrine that leverages all available nonmilitary means to subdue an enemy. Under such tactics, China is taking advantage of the U.S. judicial system and the freedom of the media, Perry added.

Shen Yun showcases dance and music performances under the tagline “China before communism.” The company was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong—a faith group brutally persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999—and has been a target of the CCP since.

Over the past year, the regime’s effort targeting Shen Yun has escalated significantly, with dozens of bomb and death threats aimed at intimidating theaters that host Shen Yun performances along with the company’s training facilities in upstate New York. Following a secret directive from top leadership in Beijing, Chinese agents in the United States have tried to bribe the IRS to open a probe against Shen Yun. They also went to Orange County, where Shen Yun is based, to surveil local Falun Gong practitioners. Attack articles targeting Shen Yun appear on Western media, which are then boosted on social media X by thousands of accounts with suspected links to Beijing.

Perry, who sits on the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees, said it was important to take these threats seriously.

Keep reading

Oldest Rock Art: 200,000-Year-Old Carvings Found on Stone in Marbella, Spain

Archaeologists have made a groundbreaking discovery in Marbella, Spain, unearthing a stone with ancient engravings on its face that could rewrite the history of prehistoric art. The find suggests that early humans may have been engaging in symbolic expression far earlier than previously believed, as this ancient rock art may predate the previous oldest samples in Europe by more than 100,000 years.

The stone was discovered at the Coto Correa site in the Las Chapas neighborhood of Marbella, which is located in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. Researchers currently estimate that the engravings are more than 200,000 years old, a timeframe that places them deep within the Lower Paleolithic era. The maker of the engravings would have been part of an early wave of human migrants to leave Africa and move into Europe, with much larger waves destined to duplicate this journey later on.

If these estimates are confirmed, this could be one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in Spain’s history, as it will literally require the rewriting of textbooks and other official resources that discuss the development of art as a form of human self-expression.

Keep reading