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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is finally set to open in L.A.’s Exposition Park on September 22.

These Are the Top Ten Most Anticipated Museums Opening Around the World in 2026

New institutions dedicated to digital art, exploration, hip-hop, conservation and more are expected to welcome visitors this year

 Miles Davis’ ceaseless reinventions of his art led Duke Ellington to call him the “Picasso of jazz.”

Miles Davis Emerged From Middle America to Become the ‘Picasso of Jazz’ and Taught Us All How to Be Cool

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the birth of a jazz legend, look back on the staggering impact of his work and its continued relevance

Curtis Kauffman with a 1950s Vendo 39 Coke machine—which he has not yet refurbished—at the Route 11 Antique Mall in Hagerstown, Maryland.

When This Restoration Expert Gets His Hands on a Relic, the Result Can Send You Back in Time

At a Maryland antiques mall, Curtis Kauffman takes trinkets from the past and makes them better than ever. For his customers, that’s worth a lot

Curator Richard Hill notes Carr’s unusual choice to orient her nature paintings vertically, as in Cedar (left, 1942) and Red Cedar (1931). “It really is a portrait of a tree.”

This Canadian Painter Found Her Muse in the Verdant Trees of British Columbia

Emily Carr took her brushes out of the gardens and into the rainforest to capture her local landscape in ways “beloved and also fraught”

New York City, 1984. Advertising is a recurring theme in Friedlander’s photography, and no figure appears more often in store windows than Old St. Nick. 

A Famed Street Photographer Chronicled What Christmas Looks Like Across America Over the Course of Decades

Lee Friedlander’s new book, “Christmas,” collects his work from all over the country on the topic of our sentimental and materialistic connection to the holiday

Legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, defiant, in a 1954 French poster for Seven Samurai.

Even If You’ve Never Seen ‘Seven Samurai,’ You’ve Certainly Seen Movies Influenced by It

Director Akira Kurosawa broke all the rules—and budgets—of Japanese filmmaking with his 1954 classic. But the final product influenced a generation of directors

Winslow Homer’s 1892 painting The Blue Boat shows his masterful use of watercolor’s layering effects.

The Delicate Works of Winslow Homer Are About to Get Their Rare Moment in the Limelight

The watercolors of the American master will be on exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, some for the only time in a generation

Flores holds up leaves from the Fittonia albivenis, a rainforest plant whose veins naturally form the patterns her people call kené. 

The Amazon Has Been This Peruvian Artist’s Home, Inspiration and Palette. Now the World Is Her Gallery

The art of making captivating Peruvian textiles has traditionally been anonymous work. But at 75, Sara Flores is making a name for herself with hypnotic abstractions

Jesse Mockrin. The Descent, oil on linen, 7.5 by 25.8 feet, 2024.

A New Exhibit in Toronto Reexamines the Works of the Baroque Masters

In her monumental work inspired by the Rape of the Sabine Women, an artist reimagines a much-depicted story from antiquity

Titled Nightview, New York, this silver gelatin print, shot in 1932, was part of a project undertaken by the photographer to document the rapidly modernizing city. 

See a Stunning Photo of New York City From Above in 1932

In her dazzling portraits of a metropolis on the rise, Berenice Abbott captured the city that never sleeps

 Cards from the Sola Busca, the earliest extant example of a complete 78-card tarot deck, made in Italy in the late 1400s.

The Colorful History of Tarot Is as Mesmerizing as the Decks Themselves

The original meaning behind the cards, first created 500 years ago, still remains elusive. But that didn’t stop our reporter from traveling to Milan in an effort to find out

At the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, visitors bring characters to life using a light table.

How the Beloved ‘Peanuts’ Found Its Way to Define the Modern Comic Strip

With poignant wisdom and gentle wit, Charles M. Schulz reinvented the form and introduced the nation to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and so many more indelible characters

Over the years, a conservator replaced the headgear on deer with real antlers and the originals mounted on moose with synthetic alternatives.

When a Lumberjack’s Imagination Ran Wild, He Created More Than 200 Sculptures in Wisconsin’s Northwoods

Decades later, a conservator keeps Fred Smith’s art alive in the whimsical Wisconsin Concrete Park

Connections between the natural world, the divine and the erotic were a favorite theme for Colquhoun, who described Earth Process, 1940, as an “image from a half-conscious experience.”

A New Exhibition Brings Fresh Recognition to a Groundbreaking But Largely Forgotten Surrealist

At London’s Tate Britain, a major retrospective takes a long look at the work of Ithell Colquhoun

A jar made by H. Wilson & Company in Capote, Texas. Right, the muddy banks of Salt Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe River about 50 miles northeast of San Antonio, where Wilson’s pottery company sourced its fine red clay. 

Three Formerly Enslaved Artists Created Beautiful Pottery 150 Years Ago, and Now Their Wares Are Coveted Around the World

The stunning vessels from the H. Wilson & Company were forgotten for generations, only to gain new appreciation for the craftsmanship that went into them

Left: Af Klint’s 1907 painting known as Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood, from a series charting life’s four main stages—the others being Youth, Adulthood and Old Age. Right, a digital collage with a photograph of af Klint c. 1901. Right: Portrait photograph of Hilma af Klint c. 1901. Portrait is collaged with a tree image created by the photographer.

Women Who Shaped History

A Swirl of Intrigue Surrounds Swedish Painter Hilma af Klint’s Newfound Status as an Icon of Abstract Art

Long overlooked, the artist made pioneering works in the early 20th century. Today she’s a global star—but some scholars insist she should be sharing the spotlight

Photographer Wayne Martin Belger created these striking platinum palladium prints by exposing the negative onto a paper coated with platinum and palladium salts, producing a special sharpness and subtlety. Belger built this vintage-style view camera specifically for this story, crafting the body from local Arizona mesquite and juniper and installing a late-19th-century French landscape lens in front, to give the prints a timeless feel. Belger calls it his “Tséyi” camera.

 

How Canyon de Chelly Brought a Photographer Back to Life

Wayne Martin Belger set out to make indelible photos of a mystical site on the Navajo Nation. First he needed to relearn how to walk

This suit of armor bears the crest of the powerful Ikeda family. The helmet dates to the 14th century, and the suit—including the bear-fur shoes—dates to the 18th.

A Blockbuster Exhibition on Samurai Reveals How the Warriors Dressed the Part

The display of exquisite samurai armor in Oklahoma highlights the importance of aesthetics to Japan’s famed fighters

In Still Life With Brioche, c. 1890, Victoria Dubourg Fantin-Latour captures the buttery crust of a signature pastry. Known for her tablescapes, she met her artist husband Henri when both were copying the same painting at the Louvre.

Feast Your Eyes on These Paintings From the Impressionist Era

A new exhibition at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville will bring the food world of the late 19th century to its gallery walls

The Original Vienna Snow Globe Factory produces roughly 300,000 snow globes per year.

How an Experiment to Amplify Light in Hospital Operating Rooms Led to the Accidental Invention of the Snow Globe

The origins of the decoration lie in Vienna’s 17th district, where the inventor’s descendants are still making them for collectors around the world

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