As the goddess of love, beauty and sexual pleasure, Aphrodite inspired cult worship and challenged artists to render her in suitably magnificent form.

Bringing the Color Back to Ancient Greece

The white marble statutes we revere were originally dressed in eye-popping pigments

For author Camille Paglia, her first moments of beauty occurred in a church and a movie theater.

Why Camille Paglia is Alarmed About the Future of Art

Is the rise of secularism behind the general malaise in the fine arts?

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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

Christopher Bonanos of New York chronicles the rise and fall of Polaroid.

Why Polaroid Inspired Both Steve Jobs and Andy Warhol

Beloved by innovators and artists alike, the camera company dissolved into history once it lost its beloved CEO. Apple should take note

Photo of the painting “Flowers in a blue vase” by Vincent van Gogh. The discoloration is located on the right side of the bouquet.

In a Van Gogh Painting, the Flowers Are Changing Color

Scientists have figured out why some of the “Flowers in a blue vase” became discolored over time

Incredible Photos of the Artist Who Makes Himself Invisible

Look closely at these photographs. Shut down by the Chinese government, Liu Bolin has mastered the art of disappearing

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Is Ai Weiwei China’s Most Dangerous Man?

Arrested and harassed by the Chinese government, artist Ai Weiwei makes daring works unlike anything the world has ever seen

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Ai Weiwei on His Favorite Artists, Living in New York and Why the Government is Afraid of Him

The Chinese government has long tried to contain the artist and activist but his ideas have spread overseas and he’s got plenty more to say

Jean Jacoby's Corner, left, and Rugby. At the 1928 Olympic Art Competitions in Amsterdam, Jacoby won a gold medal for Rugby.

When the Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art

In the modern Olympics’ early days, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze

William Shatner, who turned 81 in March, still seems possessed of boundless energy and bluster.

What William Shatner Would Put on His Gravestone

The modern-day Renaissance man, known for his work on the stage and the screen, provides insights from the Tao of Captain Kirk

Woody Guthrie, shown here in the 1940s, created great lines in songs and drawings.

Happy 100th Birthday, Woody Guthrie!

New songs by the American folk legend keep turning up, a century after his birth

Barbara Kruger photographed in her New York studio.

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

While grotesque, the faces in Louis-Leopold Boilly’s The Grimaces (1823) were carefully studied from life. The figure with a twisted mouth at the upper left is a self-portrait.

A Serious Look at Funny Faces

A history of caricatures exposes the inside jokes

Photo by Jim McGuire for the Memories album

Finding Doc Watson on Film

Searching for folk music on movies can be surprisingly difficult

Pollock’s studio in East Hampton, New York, is now the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center.

Sharing Pork Chops With Jackson Pollock

Richard Field was an undergrad with gumption when he visited the painter at his Long Island home. Nearly 60 years later, Field recalls the memorable affair

From the 1920s on, major figures in American arts and letters—Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Tennessee Williams and E.E. Cummings—gravitated toward Provincetown.

What Do Jackson Pollock, Tennessee Williams and Norman Mailer Have in Common?

Cape Cod’s dune shacks are American culture’s home away from home

The installation “We the people (detail)” was a deconstructed replica of the Statue of Liberty housed at an art museum in Kassel Germany.

Re-envisioning the Statue of Liberty

Sculptor Danh Vo deconstructs the American icon

The widening of the canal has exposed a trove of fossils, including megalodon teeth.

A New Opportunity at the Panama Canal

The ongoing expansion of the waterway has given Smithsonian researchers a chance to find new fossils

Vince Rossi wields a laser to document a whale fossil in Chile.

How Two Laser Cowboys Saved The Day

Paleontologist Nick Pyenson was in a race against a construction crew to salvage a bed of whale fossils, so he called upon 3-D technologists for help

Ross Braught, a largely forgotten artist who surely knew Jackson Pollock, painted the mural Mnemosyne and the Four Muses for the Kansas City Music Hall.

Where Did Jackson Pollock Get His Ideas?

A talented painter who died poor and forgotten may have inspired the influential American artist’s work in ceramics

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