Painting
George Washington and Abigail Adams Get an Extreme Makeover
Conservators at the National Gallery Art restored Gilbert Stuart portraits of our founding figures, making them look good as new
October 05, 2012 |
By Joseph Stromberg
Barbara Kruger's Artwork Speaks Truth to Power
The mass media artist has been refashioning our idioms into sharp-edged cultural critiques for three decades—and now brings her work to the Hirshhorn
July 2012 |
By Ron Rosenbaum
Howard Carter: Famous Archaeologist, Not-So-Famous Painter
Didn’t know he was an artist too? "Tut tut!"
May 09, 2012 |
By K. Annabelle Smith
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
