Erisava

@erisava, Joined July 2026

The Erisava team. We post public artworks — from museum collections and from the street — to get the conversation started.

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray

by Piet Mondrian, 1921

Art Institute of Chicago · wikidata.org

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray

Public domain

Erisava: Why hang a square canvas like a diamond instead of straight?

He turned a square canvas onto its corner to hang like a diamond — not a one-off trick, he kept coming back to the format for years.

Baby (Cradle)

by Gustav Klimt, 1917

National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org

Baby (Cradle)

Public domain

Erisava: What is actually going on around this baby?

Klimt died suddenly in 1918 and left this one unfinished in his studio — patterns filled in around the baby, the rest still just sketched lines.

Architectonic Painting

by Lyubov Popova, 1917

Los Angeles County Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Architectonic Painting

Public domain

Erisava: None of these shapes add up to anything I recognize.

What's your take?

She died young, in 1924, not long after she'd started moving from paintings like this one into textile and stage design.

Nude on a Blue Cushion

by Amedeo Modigliani, 1917

National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org

Content Warning

Nudity

Nude on a Blue Cushion

Public domain

Erisava: Why's her head so small for the rest of her?

This was one of a run of nudes his dealer had him churn out fast to sell — and when they went on show in Paris, police shut the exhibition down on opening day for indecency.

Champs de Mars, the Red Tower

by Robert Delaunay, 1911

Art Institute of Chicago · wikidata.org

Champs de Mars, the Red Tower

Public domain

Erisava: The tower looks like it's falling apart in this one.

What's your take?

Delaunay painted the Eiffel Tower more than two dozen times, splitting it into fragments and colour rather than showing it whole.

Painting with Green Center

by Wassily Kandinsky, 1913

Art Institute of Chicago · wikidata.org

Painting with Green Center

Public domain

Erisava: What does the inner sound of color mean, really?

By 1913 Kandinsky had mostly let go of recognizable scenes, chasing what he called the "inner sound" of color instead.

Landscape from Kragerø

by Edvard Munch, 1912

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Landscape from Kragerø

CC0

Erisava: This is way too calm for who I think painted it.

What's your take?

This came from a string of coastal landscapes painted while recovering from a breakdown — a much quieter stretch than the work he's known for.

Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension

by Kazimir Malevich, 1915

Art Institute of Chicago · wikidata.org

Painterly Realism of a Football Player - Color Masses in the 4th Dimension

Public domain

Erisava: Is there actually a football player hidden in this somewhere?

Malevich showed these without frames and wouldn't say which way up they went — he thought a fixed top and bottom was just another assumption people had gotten used to calling natural.

Genius

by Carl Milles, 1949

Sweden · wikidata.org

Content Warning

Nudity

Genius

Holger.Ellgaard · CC BY-SA 3.0

Erisava: Wings or horns — what's actually going on with his head?

Milles spent a big chunk of his career teaching sculpture in Michigan, so a lot of his best-known fountains are actually in the US, not here.

HSP's Rack Picture

by John F. Peto, 1900

Los Angeles County Museum of Art · wikidata.org

HSP's Rack Picture

Public domain

Erisava: Wait, is any of this actually pinned on there, or is it all paint?

He painted so many of these letter-rack scenes that forgers later scrubbed off his signature and added a rival's, since that name sold better.

Table at a Café

by Juan Gris, 1912

Art Institute of Chicago · wikidata.org

Table at a Café

Public domain

Erisava: It's called a café table. I just see grey triangles.

The letters spelling 'DUBO' are part of a real liquor ad — cubists liked pasting bits of advertising text right into their paintings.

The Equatorial Jungle

by Henri Rousseau, 1909

National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org

The Equatorial Jungle

CC0

Erisava: There are two faces hiding in the leaves — took me a second to spot them.

He never left France — this jungle came from botanical gardens and picture books, not anywhere he'd actually set foot.

Red Sunset on the Dnieper

by Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1900

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Red Sunset on the Dnieper

Public domain

Erisava: Is the sky actually that green up top, or has the paint just gone off?

He stopped showing his paintings publicly for almost twenty years after becoming famous, so a lot of work like this only came out once he'd died.

Vase of Flowers (Pink Background)

by Odilon Redon, 1906

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Vase of Flowers (Pink Background)

CC0

Erisava: Would you look twice at this if it weren't in a museum?

For decades he mostly made dark, unsettling charcoal prints — this bright, ordinary bouquet came from a total swing late in his career.

Daniel in the Lions' Den

by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1907

Los Angeles County Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Daniel in the Lions' Den

Public domain

Erisava: Very depressing.

What's your take?

He moved to Paris partly to get away from how Black artists got treated back home, and this moody, almost colorless lighting became the thing he was known for there.