Hatshepsut | The first woman Pharoah / La prima donna Faraone

Hatshepsut (Hat-shep-soot) (1507–1458 BCE), the first important female ruler known to history, lived a thousand years after the pyramids were built and seventeen centuries after the Egyptians had begun writing their language in hieroglyphs.

She ruled Egypt for two decades (ca. 1473-1458 B.C.) during Egypt's Dynasty 18. Although less familiar to modern audiences than her much later successor, the notorious Cleopatra (51–30 B.C.), Hatshepsut's achievements were far more significant.

Ruling first as regent for, then as co-ruler with, her nephew Thutmose III (who ruled for another thirty-three years after her death), Hatshepsut enjoyed a relatively peaceful reign, at the beginning of the New Kingdom.

Howard Rogers, 1932 | Sculptures

Howard Rogers began his fine art career as a highly successful illustrator on the East Coast, working on projects for national magazines and book publishers. He eventually moved west to paint full time, greatly inspired by the landscapes and cowboy lifestyle.

Today, he is nationally recognized for his western paintings, although his subjects include figuratives, florals and wildlife.

He is also highly sought after for his lyrical figurative bronzes.

Ana Mutavdzic | Abstract Cityscape painter

Ana Mutavdzic is an Serbian painter, known for working in the Abstract style*.

Mutavdzic was born in Kragujevac, Serbia - Yugoslavia.

I am driven by the feeling that with my brush I can convey my own understanding of the world to the canvas, the colours of my soul, my feelings and the way of life. It's one of the things which make me paint all over again.

Istvan Sàndorfi | Drawing

István Sándorfi was born in Budapest in 1948 and died in 2007. His father was director of the American company, IBM, in Hungary.

Because of this association he served five years in Stalinist prisons during the Communist regime and his family was deported to an isolated Hungarian village.

At the time of the 1956 uprising the Sandorfi family fled the country and became expatriates, first in Germany, then in France.

Greatly affected by the violence of the revolution and by the aberration of political systems in general, Istvan took refuge in drawing, and then, at the age of 12, in oil painting.

Jorge Luis Borges | A Poem to Friends | L'Amicizia

Pablo Picasso* - Friendship, 1908

I cannot give you solutions to all life’s problems,

Nor do I have answers to your doubts or fears

But I can listen to you and share it with you

I cannot change neither your past nor your future.

But when you need me I’ll be by your side.

I cannot prevent you from stumbling

I can only offer you my hand to hold on to you so you won’t fall.