You're probably thinking this is a mast of medium-wave radio transmitter antenna. One of those that sooner or later will have to be disassembled, because people stopped listening to that radio frequency. If you thought that, you could not be further from the truth. This is a real Art with a capital "A". This 30m high tower by the modern sculptor Kenneth Snelson is called "Needle Tower II", created in 1969, the second part of the XX-century, located on the premises of the Kroeller_Mueller Museum in the Dutch city Otterlo. This American artist has been inspired by three-dimensional geometry and its structural associations. His sculptures are held together by networks of tensed steel wires, they climb into the air at improbable angles, with an apparent disregard for gravity. It is amazing that this artist has also received several patents, for instance, for atomic form models. When the wind blows, the Needle Tower bends, without breaking it returns to its original shape. The tower is lightweight, strong and amazingly beautiful.

No. This is not a preparation for the launch of Apollo 13 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This is an antenna mast on Mount Sv. Jure in Croatia. Its modern shape is a great contrast with the surrounding rocks. The mount is 1762m above the see level and what is even more interesting it is possible to drive to the very top of it - something for "motorized" mountain lovers. The beautiful scenery that can be admired from there, unfortunately, has no thematic connection to our world of antennas or antenna-like structures. photo by Wojciech Kocot.

In this photo it would be extremely difficult to find a single antenna. The residents of the building at 164 Carrer de L'Escorial in Barcelona decided to protest against antennas whose installations spoil the appearance of their city. Instead they decided to place banners reading "ANTENAS NO". They are clearly visible in the enlarged picture. One of them seems to have broken with the protest but he is probably also a supporter, because the Catalonians are the people who love and appreciate beauty...

If well-known Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) - the maker, for example, of the famous Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona - had known that after several years since his tragic death this would be the view from the roof of one of his designed buildings - Casa Mila (also called "La Predrera", which in Spanish means "quarry"), he would have turned in his grave. In our opinion however, the cellular phone network antenna, through a contrast, brings beauty to this modern chimney.

Toledo is the city which in 1577 was visited by a splendid painter, Domenikos Theotokopulos (1541-1614), also known as El Greco, who was born in Crete. Fascinated by its charm, he decided to stay here until his death. He often painted landscapes which have permanently entered the textbooks on history of art. What would his paintings be like if he were to live here today? This is a view onto Museo de Santa Cruz Square in which there are several of his paintings.

Wile performing some routine conservation works at the Czartorysky Museum, a group of experts of the Historical Artifact and Relic Preservation Organization in  Krakow have discovered some images that were hidden in one of the paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. As it is well-known fact, this genius invented the bicycle, helicopter and even the submarine. Now, it turns out that the "antennology" has finally found its forefather too, and its history is much longer than previously believed. A commission composed of art historians has decided to restore the picture back to its familiar motif so that it could look like before the conservation work. If that hadn't been done, the cost of renaming the painting from "Lady with an Ermine" to "Lady with an Antenna" in all history of art books and art guides would have outgrown the budget of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. We've managed to take this unique photo however.

Here we can see the antennas of the Vatican Radio as seen from St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Not very often can we look at such a high mast from above. This scenic outlook was designed by the very Michelangelo Buonarroti. There are so many antennas on this mast that it looks like a dandelion seed head. But dandelions symbolize something transient, transitory, and short in duration, which is clearly not the case here. Would the still nature full of antennas have been an inspiration to some of the Dutch masters?

These dark so-often-seen clouds over London add some solemnity and importance to the antennas installed on the Edinburgh class light cruiser "HMS Belfast" moored on the Thames river close to the Tower Bridge. She took part in the sinking of the German battleship "Sharnhorst" in 1943. Can even constructivist artists think of images more bizarre than this one?

Does this composition found on the roof of one of the inns in Slovenia resemble a laser cannon from the Star Wars IV? With a bit of a good will and half-closed eyes one can take this image for a flower in a painting by an abstractionist. If Alexander Calder (1898-1976), an American sculptor, were alive today, he would have attached a little object somewhere on the right and sold it for a million dollars. The Museum of Modern Art would have probably bought it - link at the bottom.

Here is Neptun from the mannerist fountain by Bartolomeo Ammanati (1511-1592), which was made in 1575 and is displayed on Piazza della Signoria in Florence in order to commemorate victorious naval battles in Toskany. Doesn't he look less sinister now when a photographer added...see for yourself and click on the image.

These synchronized directional antennas are an excellent example of the contrast to the old chimneys on one of the roofs in Naples. The whole scene is lit by the setting sun, which can shine like this only in Italy. If Titian (Tiziano Vecelio) were among the living, he certainly would have used this picture as a fragment of the background to one of his paintings. And again we can ponder over what is permanent and what is transient? In a few years these antennas won't be there (the era of digital TV is approaching), but the chimneys will remain.

Now something for the lovers of the winter scenery. This is a transmitter mast in the Czantoria mountain. Drowning in fog, although not too powerful, an antenna that appears impressive and make you think that it is ruling over Ustronie region. It reminds me of a scene from The Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. If you don't remember it and you happen to be in Vienna, pop in to the Kunsthistorisches Museum where it can be viewed. Considered the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, he would have painted antenna technicians working on roofs instead of peasants putting out fire by the chimney if antennas had been popular then.

And last not least here is an self-portrait of your "gallery guy". Linden wood varnished, with anodized aluminum wire. Signed Petrus 2000. Private collection.