1. The term Trompe-l’œil, (French for “that which deceives the eye”), is an art technique where the artist reproduces realistic images that fools the viewers’ eye into perceiving an image as three-dimensional. Artists have been creating Trompe l’oeil art since the discovery of perspective techniques dating as far back as 400 B. C. and it was part of the culture of the Greek and Roman Empires.
2. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha was one of the first to be arrested by the Gestapo. He was questioned and eventually released, but having suffered from pneumonia shortly beforehand, his health was weakened by the ordeal. He died not long after on July 14, 1939. Over 100,000 Czechs attended the funeral despite a Nazi ban on the event.
3. Marcel Duchamp spent more than eight years creating his masterpiece “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors( aka The Large Glass)”. After an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1926, the glass was shattered in transit. Duchamp thought of the accident as another part of its design that was determined by chance. He spent weeks carefully reassembling the pieces.
4. Body painting is considered by many to be the most ancient form of art. The discovery of coloured pigments about 75 thousand years ago (many believe even further back) indicates that long before people covered their bodies with clothing, they decorated themselves with paint.
5. On June 3, 1968, Andy Warhol and art critic/curator Mario Amaya, were shot by Valerie Solanas after she was turned away from Warhol’s Factory studio. Warhol’s wound was almost fatal and would affect him physically and mentally for the rest of his life.
Related Books:
The Art Lover’s Almanac : Serious Trivia for the Novice and the Connoisseur
Facts On File Encyclopedia Of Art ( 5 vol. set)