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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

Highly social, narwhals travel in pods, often broken off by sex, and communicate via complex vocalizations that seem to be specific to their herds.

Does the Narwhal’s Majestic Tusk Have a Point?

A Connecticut dentist, turned curator of a new exhibition, has long worked to solve the secrets of the whale’s characteristic horn

Dream Of Motherhood by Pitseolak Ashoona (Inuit), 1969

Three Generations of Inuit Women Defy Exploitation by Visualizing Resilience and Love

A grandmother, a mother and a daughter, all took up pen and ink to tell their stories

The Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal.

Canada

This Bridge Transforms Data on Weather, Traffic and Twitter Rants into a Beautiful Light Display

The Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal lights up the skyline with the mood of the city

One of the Boys by Stacy L. Pearsall, 2007

Six Artists Record the Vestiges of War in the Faces of Combatants

A look at a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, “The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now”

Podnar shoots dry ice pellets, which sit at a frosty temperature of around negative minus-180-degrees Fahrenheit, at the object's surface

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Conservation of a Pair of Saint-Gaudens Goes al Fresco at the Freer

The beauty of dry ice cleaning is the efficient and environmentally safe process; but also the procedure was on view from the street

On July 8, the Hirshhorn becomes a festival of sound with opportunities to listen to the solar system or use body temperature to compose melodies.

The Hirshhorn Transforms Into a One-Day Soundscape

For one day, the museum will add an interactive soundscape to the works of visual art on display

A selection of foraminifera, tiny marine creatures that form elaborate shells of calcium carbonate or silica.

Art Meets Science

These Fanciful Microbes Need Your Coloring Skills

A vast microscopic world writhes around you. Now a coloring book lets you bring wee beasts and beauties to life

Triple-Face Portrait by Sylvia Plath, c. 1950-1951

The Whimsical, Chameleon-Like Figure Behind the Myth of Sylvia Plath

Today, visions of a life marked by mental illness endure, but the author had a light side—and a knack for savvy image control

Moby Dick (1956), Antonio Fernández Reboiro
, Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), 1968


The Cuban Government Brought New Life to Hollywood Movies With These Vivid Posters

The U.S. embargo didn’t keep Cubans from watching movies they loved

A skull believed to have belonged to a companion of St. Ursula. The bones of other saints are said to lie under the gemstones and gold fabric.

Portraits of Faith

A Pittsburgh Church Holds the Greatest Collection of Relics Outside of the Vatican

Behold the treasures of this tiny neighborhood church

It is not uncommon for highlands churches to be situated within caves. Mekina Medhane Alem, built of wood and layered stone, contains 800-year-old paintings but is believed to be centuries older.

Portraits of Faith

A Legendary Photographer Visits an Isolated Christian Community in Ethiopia

High in the mountains of eastern Africa, an ancient way of life continues apace

Vodou adherents, or Vodouisants, also call their faith sevis lwa, or “service to the spirits.”

Portraits of Faith

Explore the Timeless World of Vodou, Deep Within the Caves of Haiti

Photographer Troi Anderson captures the religion that has been misunderstood for centuries

Portraits of Faith

Portraits of Faith

In a world changing faster than ever, the enduring appeal of religious tradition shines in these photographs

Nicolas Party at work on sunrise, sunset, 2017 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Muralist Nicolas Party Samples Great Artists of the Past Like a Visual DJ

The Hirshhorn’s installation, inspired by Barack Obama’s “sun will rise” promise of continuity, highlights fantasy landscapes, beauty of nature

Barbara Prey's watercolor is a depiction of MASS MoCA's newest wing, which once served as a textile mill.

The Story Behind the World’s Largest Watercolor Painting

The massive artwork marks the opening of the MASS MoCA’s new 130,000-square-foot wing, which makes it the largest contemporary art museum in the U.S.

“I felt that I was always connected to the world and the people of the world, and that activism was in me from a very young age,” Ono says.

The Long and Winding Road of Yoko Ono’s Art

A Hirshhorn exhibition of four works opens the same week Ono is credited, 46 years later, as a co-writer of the chart-topping ballad “Imagine.”

Demetrius Shipp Jr. as Tupac Shakur in All Eyez On Me.

The Musical Legacy Behind the Tupac Biopic ‘All Eyez on Me’

Curator Dwandalyn Reece from the Smithsonian’s African American Museum investigates

Brigitte Kowanz, Light Steps.

Art Installations Transform a Historic Venetian Island

San Clemente Island in the Lagoon of Venice, a former refuge for crusaders and a hospice for plague victims, opens an island-wide art show

Zelt 46—dithyrambisch (Tent 46—Dithyrambic) by Markus Lüpertz, 1965

It Takes Two Museums to Cover the Work of this Prolific German Neo-Expressionist

Europe’s celebrated Markus Lüpertz has a huge appetite for creativity. He’s also a poet, writer, set designer and jazz pianist

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