Art History Self-Test... IN FRENCH!

There's a really interesting self-test, or let's say quiz, for people studying or interested in art history on the French website of L'Internaute magazine. It's really useful for people who may be doing an art history degree at university, or even just AP Art History at high school.

The art history quiz (here) is in French, but even without any knowledge, you should be able to guess what the questions, and possible answers are. They're works of famous artists like Gaugin, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Monet, and other great masters of art. Traditionally, the names you'd expect to see, but also a few surprises you may not know. You should be looking to get everything right!

Cities Shaped Like Animals - True Art

Here are the plans for a Rhino-shaped city in Sudan as
will be visible from the sky. Source: VOA News.

Instead of simply calling cities like NYC "The Big Apple", why not actually make them shaped like fruit, or even animals? The government of Southern Sudan in northeastern Africa (south of Egypt) has decided to do exactly so by commissioning artists and landscape architects. Way to take art into the real world!

Although still in the planning stage, many new and old cities have been lined up to become shaped like animals such as rhinos, pineapples and giraffes. The shapes won't be assigned randomly, but will be based on the regions/cities national fruit or animal. To my knowledge, this is the first instance in history where something like this has been undertaken – and will truly remain visible for centuries. Perhaps in ancient history, there was no need to do so, as no flying machines existed – but now, given modern commercial flights, shaping cities like still-lifes has a great touristic and artistic value.

They're even turning former slum cities, into nice, modern places for all social classes to live. The government is planning big expenditures here, and this will be a rather costly project ($10-billion USD).

A turbulent self-governing region of Sudan, Southern Sudan has seen many atrocities in it's history – and is currently a place of high poverty, very poor health, and high occurrence of HIV/AIDS. Perhaps these investments will help those who need it most – not only help with physical living conditions (e.g. cleanliness and a disease-free environment), but also on the moral side – provide a happier place for people.