This Poster Advertising The 1934 Levant Fair In Tel Aviv, And Glass Lantern Slide Showing The Fair At

Luminous Entity

oil on canvas | 40 x 36" | 2013 Rick Stevens Art

Cute illustrations done by Marija Tiurina 

Happy Mother’s Day!

The company that makes Legos has landed at the center of a social-media firestorm after Chinese artist Ai Weiwei complained that it refused to supply a bulk order of the toy bricks for his art.

Ai said he wanted to use the bricks for an exhibition on free speech at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria. The museum attempted to place an order but was told by the company that it “cannot approve the use of Legos for political works."A post on Ai’s Instagram account said:

"As a powerful corporation, Lego is an influential cultural and political actor in the globalized economy with questionable values. Lego’s refusal to sell its product to the artist is an act of censorship and discrimination.”

A free-speech advocate who was imprisoned by the Chinese government, Ai suggested that Lego was acting under pressure from authorities. The privately held Danish company recently announced that a Legoland theme park will open in Shanghai. 

In response, fans of the artist flooded Twitter and Instagram with offers of Legos, and Ai said he was setting up drop-off points for donations. He also posted a picture of Legos that had been left inside a car on a street in Berlin, where he is serving as a visiting professor at the University of the Arts.

Fans Flood Artist Ai Weiwei With Offers Of Legos

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By the Coast at Bornholm - Peder Mork Monsted

1917

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -The Box with a Gilded Mask                    

Religious education: Jewish Child in Yemen

(via A Matter of Faith | Steve McCurry)

Hand-stencil rock art from Gua Tewet, Borneo, thought to be over 10,000 years old.

Photo courtesy of Luc-Henri Fage, via the Wiki Commons.

It may be summer outside, but this painting is giving us chills. Don’t miss “Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting” before it closes on September 13. “Lavacourt under Snow,” c. 1878–80, by Claude Monet (The National Gallery, London. Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917)

This gorgeous hand-made piece of the Kotel (Western Wall) depicts the heart of Jewish Culture.

Click here for size and pricing details.