Grilled Cheese

ExploreLog inSign up
Terms of UsePrivacy PolicyCommunity StandardsHelpGet the app

Grilled Cheese is a product of Village Compute

Version devBuilt at: 2026-10-16 08:00:47 EDT

PhotosVideosAllPeople
LatestRanked
Load more
@iduhouse.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 8:01 PM

🎨 Artist of the Day: Ernest Mancoba

A pioneer of African modernism, Ernest Mancoba’s art blended spirituality, abstraction and identity. Working in exile, he sought freedom through form, creating pieces that spoke to human dignity and depth.

#CreatorsAtWork #Skystorians #BlackSky #BlackSkyArt #Art

Black-and-white portrait of Ernest Mancoba in later life, photographed by Peter Johansen in 1986. Mancoba sits indoors in a dark beret, herringbone tweed jacket, dark sweater vest, crisp white shirt and tie. Light enters from the left, catching the planes and deep lines of his face as he looks past the camera with a furrowed, searching expression. A doorway or window frame cuts through the shadowy background. At the bottom edge, his hands hold folded eyeglasses and part of a newspaper, giving the formal portrait the feeling of a quiet moment interrupted. Art historians Karen Kurczynski and Nicola Pezolet identify this as Johansen’s 1986 portrait, made in a period when Mancoba, long based in France, was visiting Denmark to work on lithographs with Johansen. The Ferlov Mancoba archive preserves correspondence from Atelier Litografisk inviting him to work there and suggests this stay may have marked his move into lithography after earlier woodcuts. There is another layer just beyond this crop. In the wider published photograph, Mancoba’s sideways glance falls toward Alberto Giacometti’s bronze Spoon Woman, a work shaped by Giacometti’s own encounter with West African carved forms. Mancoba had known Giacometti during his early Paris years, when his own thinking about African art and European modernism was changing rapidly. The visual encounter is powerful because Mancoba spent much of his career resisting a history that eagerly celebrated African influence while too often marginalizing African modernists themselves. Here he is simply present: composed, observant, intellectually alert and still making work nearly half a century after leaving South Africa. That quiet visibility feels different now: Mancoba has since become the subject of major institutional reassessments, and the Ferlov Mancoba Foundation launched a digital catalogue raisonné in 2025 to reconstruct the record of an oeuvre that history had only partially preserved.Black-and-white archival photograph of Ernest Mancoba’s Faith, carved in wood in 1936. The small sculpture stands alone on a rectangular base against a pale, nearly empty backdrop. Its surface is dark, rough and visibly worked rather than polished smooth. A larger human form rises vertically like a compact column, built from broad rounded masses. Nested against its front is a smaller childlike body and face, tilted upward toward the larger figure, so mother and child seem less like separate bodies than forms growing into and through one another. Simplified limbs, compressed anatomy and visible carving marks give the work both physical weight and tenderness. Faith survives through photographs, including this image first published in Johannesburg’s The Star on June 8, 1936; the sculpture’s current whereabouts and dimensions are unknown. It belongs to a pivotal turn in Mancoba’s South African practice. After learning woodcarving at Grace Dieu and becoming known for more naturalistic figurative sculpture, he encountered reproductions of West and Central African sculpture in a book recommended by Cape Town modernist Lippy Lipshitz. That encounter helped open a route toward geometric simplification and a modernism he could define for himself. The timing matters. In 1936 South Africa’s Department of Native Affairs also offered Mancoba work making saleable animal souvenirs for the Empire Exhibition. He ultimately refused. Faith was not made as an illustration of that refusal, but it comes from the same moment in which he was pushing against colonial ideas about what a Black artist should make and for whom. Here resemblance is no longer the whole point. Volume, rhythm, compression and the relationship between two bodies carry the feeling. Scholar Joshua I. Cohen calls Faith Mancoba’s first modernist sculpture. The surviving image lets us watch an artist beginning to claim formal freedom before Europe ever entered the story.Black-and-white photograph of Ernest Mancoba working in a studio in Gudhjem on the Danish island of Bornholm in summer 1951, photographed by Johnny Bonne. Mancoba stands slightly hunched over a crowded worktable, wearing a dark beret and sleeveless sweater over a white collared shirt. His eyes are lowered toward a small palette or board held carefully in both hands. Brushes, containers and working materials fill the table below him. At right, a rounded wooden sculpture by Mancoba rises close to the camera; behind him hangs one of his paintings, organized through broad geometric and block-like forms. The photograph places painting and sculpture in the same room, surrounding the artist as living parts of his practice. The image was made for a newspaper feature about artists working on Bornholm that summer. Ernest and his wife, Danish sculptor Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, were spending time in Gudhjem near the end of the five years they had lived in Denmark after World War II. Through friends including Asger Jorn and Ejler Bille, Mancoba had become involved with the Høst exhibition circle and the CoBrA milieu. CoBrA’s official life lasted only from 1948 to 1951, so this photograph catches him at the edge of both a place and an art-historical moment. That context is complicated. Mancoba later described feeling marginalized within those circles, where enthusiasm for non-Western art could coexist with resistance to a Black South African artist speaking as an equal modernist. Bonne’s photograph cuts through that abstraction. We see Mancoba doing the work: handling materials, studying a surface, surrounded by objects he made. After this Bornholm summer, the family returned to France. The image therefore reads almost like a threshold, but not an ending. It shows a creator whose language cannot be reduced to “African,” “European” or “CoBrA,” because all three labels are smaller than the practice happening in the room.Color image of Ernest Mancoba’s Komposition, also known as Composition, painted in Paris in 1940 in oil on canvas. The roughly vertical work is dense and symmetrical without becoming rigid. At the top, nested diamonds and polygonal bands read almost like a head or mask. Below, sharp red, blue, ochre, cream, green and brown chevrons stack and open outward around a central axis. Curved striped passages suggest eyes, arms, wings or ornament, while the lower half gathers into another diamond above dark triangular forms. Thick, direct brushwork keeps the geometry alive: edges wobble, colors overlap and the image seems to shift between a human presence and an abstract structure. The current Ernest Mancoba catalogue raisonné records the work as Komposition, 1940, oil on canvas, 59.5 by 49.5 centimeters, private collection. MoMA scholar Joshua I. Cohen identifies it as Mancoba’s first painting on canvas, following the nonobjective works on paper he made after arriving in Europe. Here he brings the human figure back, but reorganizes it through abstraction. Scholars have linked the painting’s frontal structure, diamonds and chevrons to Kuba masking traditions from the Congo region, particularly the Mbwoom helmet mask. Mancoba had studied African works and reproductions in South Africa and visited the British Museum’s African collections on his way to Paris; the precise model remains an art-historical interpretation rather than a documented one-to-one copy. That distinction matters. This is an African modernist authoring his own synthesis, not simply supplying “influence” to Europe. Composition predates CoBrA by eight years, challenging the habit of explaining Mancoba mainly through that later movement. The language is already here: figure becoming sign, symmetry disrupted by the hand, and African form participating from inside the making of modern art.
@feegiconference.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 7:28 PM

Boosting this as the Nov. 1 deadline for these two $1000 research grants is approaching! #earlymodern #globalhistory #skystorians

Quoted postOpen post
@gemmahauthor.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 6:20 PM

My Just History Posts 10 year anniversary event is tomorrow! justhistoryposts.com/events/

I thought I'd share a bit more information about the wonderful line up of historians who will be chatting away about their craft... 🧵

#history #events #historians #skystorians

An event poster with a grey background. The text reads: Just History Posts' 10th Anniversary. Saturday 17th October 4pm BST. An online event celebrating history bloggers. Hear what it takes to found and run a history website, and where the future of historical blogging may be. Learn more at justhistoryposts.com. There are 5 headshots of those taking part in the event: Gemma Hollman, Amy Boucher, Sharon Bennett Connolly, Rebecca Larson and Tamise Hills.
@silicasun.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 5:29 PM

#PhantomsFriday #FF #31DaysofHorror #HalloweenCountdown #skystorians 👻📚
And remembering Oscar Wilde #OscarWilde #OTD #BoTD 📚#novels #booksbooksbooks #reading
'This wallpaper is dreadful, one of us will have to go.'
silicasun.wordpress.com 📘 #silicasun 🖼️🍂💙

Photo, no description
@nassh1972.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 5:16 PM

Call for Expressions of Interest to Host
#NASSH2027 Pre-Conference Workshop, May 27-28 #Skystorians #SportHistory

@bsky.realhackhistory.orgOct 16, 2026, 4:44 PM

The next blog in the series will be as far back as I think I can take it, physical theft of data tapes for ransom in the 1970s.

Almost forgot to tag #skystorians.

@vivdunstan.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 4:27 PM

Wrote some quick thoughts up about the “Tartan & Turmoil - the Angus Jacobite Story” exhibition currently on in Montrose Museum #scotland #skystorians vivsacademicblog.wordpress.com/2026/10/16/t...

@ukraineseuromaidan.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 2:37 PM

If you're in Berlin October 27, join us!

@gcsu-history-dept.bsky.social
@historians.org
@apsa-europe-polsky.bsky.social
#bskyhistorians
#skystorians
#ukrainewar
#europeanhistory
#20thcenturyhistory
#soviethistory

t.me/ukrainische_...

@onslies.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 1:10 PM

Was wonderful to meet @frankietaylor317.bsky.social this Summer while I was in York! Such brilliant and mind-bending work; I can't think of the maintenance of knowledge in the same way again. Wonderful piece, do give it a read! #earlymodern #Skystorians

FFrancis Taylor@frankietaylor317.bsky.socialAug 7, 2026, 8:40 AM

Just published this with Renaissance Studies! On furzes, thistles, and ‘perfect’ descriptions of parochial weeding techniques: doi.org/10.1111/rest...

doi.orgA Natural History of ‘Annoyances’: Knowing Weeds and Weeding Knowledge in the Early Royal Society and its ‘Georgicall Committee’Seventeenth-century virtuosi often figured themselves as epistemic weeders, grubbing up rank thickets of accumulated error. In this article, I argue that these metaphors were unnerved by the shifting...
@joekrulder.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 11:50 AM

#Skystorians

Quoted postOpen post
@caitbeaumont.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 11:01 AM

📣 Reminder 📣: book your spot for next @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar @ihr.bsky.social on Weds. 21 Oct. 5.30pm. (in-person only) with @ruthdav.bsky.social giving us a preview of her forthcoming book. Not to be missed! @socialhistsoc.bsky.social @womenshistnet.bsky.social #skystorians

Quoted postOpen post
@onslies.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 10:59 AM

Birmingham has opened a virtual book of condolences and is establishing a PhD scholarship in Chris Wickham's memory. All info on how to contribute here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/pr...

#SkyStorians #MedievalSky

We send condolences and sympathies to Chris’s family, friends and colleagues around the world – and especially to Leslie Brubaker, Chris’s wife, close collaborator and fellow Birmingham professor. Leslie’s wish is that donations in Chris’s memory will support the establishment of The Chris Wickham Doctoral Scholarship, a new source of funding that will support PhD researchers at the University of Birmingham. Further details on the scholarships, including information on how to donate, are now online. Tributes to Chris for inclusion on this page can be sent to calheadofcollege@contacts.bham.ac.uk. Please include your name and any institutional affiliation that you wish to be included in the attribution.
@mobhistory.substack.comOct 16, 2026, 10:15 AM

#OTD (Oct 16)
Events in U.S. organized crime #history.

#LosAngeles #Pittsburgh #LibertyNY #NewEngland #Denver #NewYork #Mafia #MafiaHistory 🗃️ #Skystorians

On this date, Oct 16... • in 1902, Paolo 'Kelly' Vaccarelli and 45 others are arrested for fraudulent voter registration. • in 1908, Bonaventura Pinzolo gets 5 years for Black Hand activity. • in 1918, Tony Matranga is arrested for shooting at Los Angeles racketeer Stephen Ardizzone. • in 1920, Prohibition agents seize $30,000 worth of whiskey in a Manhattan raid. • in 1924, 60 barrels of whiskey are stolen from a government warehouse outside Pittsburgh. • in 1927, Louis Buchalter, Jacob Shapiro and Hyman Holtz take over the rackets of murdered 'Little Augie' Orgen. • in 1929, racketeer Salvatore 'Charlie Luciano' Lucania is abducted in Manhattan. • in 1932, a hunter outside Liberty NY finds the body of a murdered man. • in 1934, New York Mayor LaGuardia has himself photographed destroying slot machines. • in 1963, the Senate's McClellan Committee hears about the structure, membership and activities of the New England Crime Family. • in 1972, Carmine Tramunti, Paul Vario, Natale Evola and hundreds of others in the New York area are called to testify about Mafia infiltration of legitimate businesses. • in 1980, Aladena Fratianno testifies in the Los Angeles federal trial of Mafia leaders. • in 2006, Clarence Smaldone, former Denver crime boss, dies at the age of 82. Image of Carmine Tramunti.
@dbellingradt.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 8:43 AM

#skystorians: this is the #weekendsky for this week.

@ideasroadshow.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 8:01 AM

HOPE (SPES) in monochrome grisaille by Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel. Hope is portrayed as a winged female figure elevating & reaching her hands upward to an angel holding a divine crown. 👑

Read more: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/art-unmedi...

🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #frescofriday 🏺

Hope is portrayed as a winged female figure elevating and reaching her hands upward to an angel holding a divine crown.Hope is portrayed as a winged female figure elevating and reaching her hands upward to an angel holding a divine crown. This is a detail of the angel with the crown in the right hand top corner.
@sistoryhistory.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 7:57 AM

Swimming into #FindsFriday with this gorgeously detailed bronze mermaid, dated 2nd century CE.

Loving the detail of the scales on her tail, and how protectively she's holding that cornucopia 🧜🏻‍♀️.

📸 us at Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija, Seville

#Sevilla #archaeology ##skystorians #ancientbluesky

Photo, no description
@royalhistsoc.orgOct 16, 2026, 7:43 AM

Yesterday @ihr.bsky.social launched a wide range of funding opportunities for historians.

They include, with @royalhistsoc.org, calls for 2x Applied History Fellowships, 2027 and 2x PhD Fellowships for 2027-28. Full details of these and other current RHS calls: bit.ly/4Bfjsic #Skystorians

Quoted postOpen post
@ijhs.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 7:29 AM

#skystorians 🗃️ #sporthistory

📍New article!

"Beyond National Heroines: Football, Representation, and Cold War East Asia – The Making of Taiwan’s Mulan Women’s Football Team"

by Chinfang Kuo, Hsienwei Kuo

Check it out: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

@kefauver4prez.bsky.socialOct 16, 2026, 12:24 AM

You never know what you'll see on the trail!

While campaigning at a house party in 1956, Kefauver meets a woman who's wearing a tiara that spells out "KEFAUVER." An interesting style choice!

#skystorians #history #polisky

Photo, no description
@nassh1972.bsky.socialOct 15, 2026, 8:37 PM

The call for papers for #NASSH2027 is live! Hope to see many #SportHistory scholars in Ontario or online next spring! #Skystorians