Free Republic

Yemen-based Ansar Allah, widely known as the Houthis, continues to have a profound impact on global security. The group’s ongoing operations in the Red Sea affected an estimated US $1 trillion worth of maritime cargo between October 2023 and May 2024, and despite periodic kinetic attacks, its operations show no signs of abating. Moreover, evidence suggests the Houthis enjoy the financial and military backing of Russia and China, in addition to their established ties with Iran. This Insight explores the Houthis’ financing mechanisms, including leveraging technology to evade sanctions and the involvement of foreign facilitators with demonstrable and plausible ties...

This fall, Édouard Manet’s famed 1863 painting Olympia will travel from Paris to New York for the first time. Olympia, among other works by Manet, will be on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning September 24. The show, aptly titled “Manet/Degas,” pairs Manet with his fellow Frenchman, one-time friend, and rival, the enigmatic Edgar Degas. The show, which comes to New York after a run at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, examines a radical period of French painting through the lens of the artists’ tempestuous bond. Related Articles Two images of chandeliers that appear to be made of...

A roughly chronological view of the art of Edouard Manet, to Sonata for Oboe and Piano in D-Major Op-166 by Saint-Saens. Manet was pre-impressionist, and you can see his style move from realism into a more impressionist approach.

Well, now that exams are over, grades are in, I’d like to bring some Art Appreciation ideas to Free Republic. Unfortunately, as artists have become more and more abstract, it really does take some study and/or education to understand what their ideas are. One doesn’t always need a snotty PhD art historian to do so, however. Once a person learns how to look at artworks, one can make one’s own decisions about form and content. (One can't just "appreciate" the blue in a painting to really understand what the painting is about.) Form and content: that’s what I emphasize in...