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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

Silhouettes of Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant of Weybridge, Vermont, (c. 1805-1815) is possibly the first depiction of a same sex couple.

Rarely Seen 19th-Century Silhouette of a Same-Sex Couple Living Together Goes On View

A new show, featuring the paper cutouts, reveals unheralded early Americans, as well as contemporary artists working with this old art form

With fingers intertwined and mouths gleefully thrown open, the three maidens dance around the Art Nouveau sculpture by Walter Schott.

The Lost Maidens of Berlin

A decades-long quest for one of the most intriguing artworks looted by the Nazis leads to the courtyard of a posh hotel in the German countryside

“Art can’t change society,” said White, whose stirring images challenged stereotypes. “It can only change individuals.”

A New Exhibit Gives Charles White’s Art and Activism the Attention They Deserve

A century after his birth, an overlooked figure in the Black Renaissance is on the rise again

"The seemingly rigid frontiers that have come to define places like Africa and Asia," says the museum's director Gus Casely Hayford, "are in fact remarkably fluid, connected through the intersections of art, commerce and culture."

First Major Swahili Coast Art Show Reveals a Diverse World of Cultural Exchange and Influence

At the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum, international influences commingle to create a farrago of artisanal splendors

Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine by Kadir Nelson (detail, above) is on view at the National Portrait Gallery through November 4, 2018.

Women Who Shaped History

Famed for “Immortal” Cells, Henrietta Lacks is Immortalized in Portraiture

Lacks’s cells gave rise to medical miracles, but ethical questions of propriety and ownership continue to swirl

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975, Robert Colescott, acrylic on canvas

What Happens When Art History Gets Refigured

A museum in Seattle shows the incredible power of subverting the traditional course of representation

The enthralling c. 1993 portrait of Anthony by ADÁL (detail above), face and palms to the sky, captures the performer’s signature flair.

Marc Anthony Garners the Big Win in the Portrait Gallery’s People’s Choice Award

A portrait of salsa music’s all-time top-selling artist is on display on the museum’s “Recognize” wall

Voiced by Josh Brolin, the hulking alien aggressor Thanos moves and speaks precisely as Brolin did on set, thanks to state-of-the-art performance-capture technology.

How the ‘Infinity War’ Directors’ Childhood Gave Them the Guts to Pull Off That Ending

Marvel comes to D.C. to delve into Avengers spoilers and make a Smithsonian donation

RUBE GOLDBERG ® is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. All materials used with permission. rubegoldberg.com. The Art of Rube Goldberg on view March 15–July 8, 2018 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

The Story Behind Rube Goldberg’s Complicated Contraptions

In his time he was a world-famous cartoonist, but today he’s best known for these wacky inventions

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Future of Art

Future of Art

A new generation of artists is merging innovation with tradition to tell the important stories of our time

The Smithsonian Craft Show in 2010

Future of Art

How the Work of a Sculptor and a Doctor Landed In the Nation’s Top Craft Show

More than 100 artists in the 36th annual Smithsonian Craft Show capture Asia’s influence on American design

Diane Arbus with her photograph A young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, N.Y.C., 1966

A Window into the World of Diane Arbus

Photographs from the portfolio, “A box of ten,” reveal some of the photographer’s secrets

Armenia

These Two Brothers Are Helping Keep Armenia’s Stone Carving Tradition Alive

An installation of Brand New SW in Washington D.C.'s L'Enfant Plaza.

Modern Takes on 80s Artwork Hit Washington D.C. Streets

The Hirshhorn Museum’s public art project ‘Brand New SW’ reflects a resurgence of retro aesthetics in contemporary art

Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen, Cleveland, Ohio by David Gahr, 1977

Ten Rarely Seen Springsteen Photographs That Capture the Exhilarating Power of The Boss

A new book reveals the work of David Gahr, who documented the music legend as he rose to worldwide fame

Yamashita was the model for Chair, but this is not a self-portrait. "It could have been anyone," she says. "For me, poetry doesn’t exist in specificity."

Future of Art

Artist Kumi Yamashita Creates an Amazing Human Figure Out of Shadow

Coming soon to the National Portrait Gallery, an old art form gets reinvented

PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - "WAVE" August 23 - November 19, 2017

Europe

This Stunning Memorial to Britain’s WWI Soldiers Makes Its Final Appearance

The wave of brilliant red flowers marks the end of a centennial of commemorations of the Great War

“And I persevered,” says curator Debra Diamond of her find that lead to new scholarship, at the the TV Critics Association winter press tour.

A Curator’s College Find Is Revisited in the New PBS Showcase ‘Civilizations’

Debra Diamond’s story, says the show’s producer, exemplifies the ‘joy of discovery’ in a whole new way

"Do Ho Suh: Almost Home" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2018

Future of Art

How This Globetrotting Artist Redefines Home and Hearth

An ethereal 3D installation by the Korean-born Do Ho Suh combines places the artist has lived in the past

Sam and his true love Suzy navigate the wilds of New Penzance in Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

Wes Anderson’s Fastidious Whimsy Has Delighted Moviegoers for Decades

A Smithsonian retrospective breathes fresh life into Anderson’s kaleidoscopic filmography

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