Painting
The Oldest Modernist Paintings
Two thousand years before Picasso, artists in Egypt painted some of the most arresting portraits in the history of art
February 2012 |
By Smithsonian Magazine
The Other Vitruvian Man
Was Leonardo da Vinci's famous anatomical chart actually a collaborative effort?
February 2012 |
By Toby Lester
An Eye for Genius: The Collections of Gertrude and Leo Stein
Would you have bought a Picasso painting in 1905, before the artist was known? These siblings did.
January 2012 |
By Arthur Lubow
Clyfford Still's Sublime Art
A new museum devoted exclusively to the work of the abstract painter is opening in Denver. A leading critic takes a close look at one masterwork
December 2011 |
By Peter Plagens
A Mischievous St. Nick from the American Art Museum
The 19th-century artist Robert Walter Weir took inspiration from Washington Irving to create a prototype of Santa Claus
December 2011 |
By Owen Edwards
America's 19th Century Highway: The River
A new exhibition of American wonders underscores the debt our country owes to its waterways
November 2011 |
By Daniel Walker Howe
America’s Forgotten Landscape Painter: Robert S. Duncanson
Beloved by 19th-century audiences around the world, the African-American artist fell into obscurity, only to be celebrated as a genius more than a century later
October 19, 2011 |
By Lucinda Moore
Willem de Kooning Still Dazzles
A new major retrospective recounts the artist's seven-decade career and never-ending experimentation
October 2011 |
By Mark Stevens
Ask an Expert: What is the Difference Between Modern and Postmodern Art?
A curator from the Hirshhorn Museum explains how art historians define the two classifications
September 23, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
How to Trademark a Fruit
To protect the fruits of their labor and thwart "plant thieves," early American growers enlisted artists
August 2011 |
By Daniel J. Kevles
Q and A with Miss Manners
The columnist talks about how her portraiture collection reflects culture’s stance on etiquette
August 2011 |
By Arcynta Ali Childs
Stolen: How the Mona Lisa Became the World’s Most Famous Painting
One hundred years ago, a heist by a worker at the Louvre secured Leonardo’s painting as an art world icon
June 16, 2011 |
By James Zug
The Story Behind the Peacock Room's Princess
How a portrait sparked a battle between an artist–James McNeill Whistler—and his patron–Frederick R. Leyland
June 2011 |
By Owen Edwards
George Ault’s World
Structured with simple lines and vivid colors, the paintings of George Ault
captured the chaotic 1940s in a unique way
May 10, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
A Velázquez in the Cellar?
Sorting through old canvases in a storeroom, a Yale curator discovered a painting believed to be by the Spanish master
April 2011 |
By Jamie Katz
Wayne Thiebaud Is Not a Pop Artist
He's best known for his bright paintings of pastries and cakes, but they represent only a slice of the American master's work
February 2011 |
By Cathleen McGuigan
Martin Luther King Jr. by Mural
Photographer Camilo José Vergara captures varying portrayals of the civil rights leader in urban areas across the United States
January 12, 2011 |
By Jess Righthand
The Woman Who Brought Van Gogh to the World
Art lovers have Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law to credit for introducing the impressionist’s work to the world
November 02, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
In Haiti, the Art of Resilience
Within weeks of January's devastating earthquake, Haiti's surviving painters and sculptors were taking solace from their work
September 2010 |
By Bill Brubaker
The Grand Women Artists of the Hudson River School
Unknown and forgotten to history, these painters of America's great landscapes are finally getting their due in a new exhibition
July 21, 2010 |
By Judith H. Dobrzynski
