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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Lime Marinade, Cohiba Cigar Cases and Other Unique Gifts You Can Buy in Cuba

Ian Marcos Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old printer at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica, in Havana, helps the author prepare a block of lithographic limestone for printing.

Step Inside Cuba’s Oldest Printmaking Studio

At the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana, process is everything

Founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale stands next to a wall graphic of the Party's Ten-Point Program inside the Oakland Museum of California's exhibition, "All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50."

The Black Panthers Were Founded 50 Years Ago, and Their Influence Hasn’t Waned

Group founder Bobby Seale reflects on the Panthers’ iconic Ten-Point Program

Dish with copper-red glaze, and a Xuande mark in cobalt oxide on the base, China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen Ming Dynasty, Xuande reign (1426-1435)

What a Mark Rothko Painting Has in Common With a Ming Dynasty Dish

This one vibrant color, rich in symbolism, unites two works across five centuries

Gemasolar Thermasolar Plant, 37.560755°, –5.331908° This image captures the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant in Seville, Spain. The solar concentrator contains 2,650 heliostat mirrors that focus the sun’s thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through a 140-metre-tall (460-foot) central tower. The molten salt then circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is used to produce steam and generate electricity. In total, the facility displaces approximately 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Art Meets Science

These Photographs From Space Show What Humans Have Done to the Earth

In new book, vivid satellite images of the planet evoke what astronauts call “the overview effect”

Woman in E by Ragnar Kjartansson, 2016

Why a Woman Is Playing the Same Guitar Chord Over and Over Again at the Hirshhorn

The absurdly comedic work of Iceland’s top performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson

"Bird," 1990, David Hammons, painted metal, wire, basketball and feathers.

This $1.4 Million “Bird” Makes an African-American Art Collection Soar to New Heights

With his first major contemporary acquisition, the Detroit Institute of Arts’ new director is reinvigorating the museum

Zak van Biljon photographed Kennedy Lake in British Columbia using infrared film.

Art Meets Science

Looking at Nature Through Infrared Film Will Have You Seeing Red

See the world on a whole different spectrum

Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present, Performance, 3 months, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 2010

What to Make of Marina Abramović, the Godmother of Performance Art

Is her body of work art, magic, theater or masochism?

Global Cities by Norwood Vivian, 2015

Mapping the World’s Great Cities in a Most Unusual, Yet Visually Arresting, Fashion

Part urban planner, part cartographer, sculptor Norwood Viviano uses state-of-the-art mapping tools to make powerful works of art

DFB 45, Arès, Brandon Ballengée, 2008. Scanner photograph of cleared and stained multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog from Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Dr. Stanley K. Sessions. Title in collaboration with the poet KuyDelair.

Art Meets Science

With Deformed Frogs and Fish, a Scientist-Artist Explores Ecological Disaster and Hope

A 20-year retrospective of Brandon Ballengée’s artwork explores humans’ connection to cold-blooded creatures

Monopoly, 2007 by Kristen Morgin

This Game of Monopoly Is Made Entirely of Clay

Kristen Morgin’s playful illusions explore ideas of abandonment and the American dream

Marion’s Morifolium Neckpiece by Jennifer Trask, 2011, includes sewing needles, antler, various teeth and bones and cast resin with bone powder, among other materials.

Bones and Blood Lurk Within These Stunning Works of Art

Sculptor Jennifer Trask sees a rich backstory in her materials

Peonies and Butterflies, Steven Young Lee, 2013, porcelain, cobalt inlay, gold luster decals. Collection of Lee and Mel Eagle

Steven Young Lee Crafts Perfectly Imperfect Pottery

Rigorously trained, this artist makes works that look woefully broken

Installation view of "Masterworks from the Hirshhorn Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden," 2016. Nude with Leg Up (Leigh Bowery) by Lucian Freud, 1992; Untitled (Big Man) by Ron Mueck, 2000.

The Hyperreal Magnetism of Ron Mueck’s Truly Huge “Big Man”

The sculptor’s showstopper is naked, overweight and grumpy

The gallery's uncluttered walls make way for splashy art that has space to breathe and have an impact.

Breaking Ground

History Grabs the Headlines, But the Quiet Authority of the Art Gallery in the New Smithsonian Museum Speaks Volumes

In the visual arts exhibition the tone and the ambience suddenly shift

Leutwyler spent three weeks in the archives of the Elvis Presley Estate photographing objects, such as this gold-plated microphone (c. 1960).

A New Photo Book Reveals the Objects That Tell the Stories of the Rich and Famous

Photographer Henry Leutwyler usually shoots his camera at celebrities. For this book, he looked at their stuff

George Clinton donated to the museum his Parliament Funkadelic Mothership.

Breaking Ground

The New Exhibition on Black Music Could Give Other Museums a Run for Their Money

The collections in the show “Musical Crossroads” at the African American History Museum are near encyclopedic in their scope

Langston Hughes powerfully speaks for those excluded.

Breaking Ground

What Langston Hughes’ Powerful Poem “I, Too” Tells Us About America’s Past and Present

Smithsonian historian David Ward reflects on the work of Langston Hughes

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