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Arts & Culture / Art & Artists

George Catlin's c. 1827 fusion of art and cartography, A Bird's Eye View of Niagara Falls, likely struck 19th-century viewers as highly imaginative.

America’s 19th Century Highway: The River

A new exhibition of American wonders underscores the debt our country owes to its waterways

Experience the life cycles of stars and galaxies, such as Centaurus A galaxy, shown here, through January 2012 at the National Museum of Natural History.

What’s Up

In 1939, Diosa Costello became the first Latina on Broadway.

Q and A With Diosa Costello

The first Latina on Broadway dishes on her career and how she got her breakout role in South Pacific

The PT-13D prepared Tuskegee Airmen for war.

Breaking Ground

The Tuskegee Airmen Plane’s Last Flight

The final voyage of a World War II biplane evokes the exploits of the legendary fighting force

To prevent young birds from imprinting on humans, flock manager Jane Chandler dons a white gown and a mask. She uses a puppet to teach them survival skills.

A Call to Save the Whooping Crane

Smithsonian researchers join an international effort to bring the five-foot-tall bird back from the brink of extinction

Yves Klein produced controversial and boundary-breaking single-color paintings, elemental canvases of fire, water and air, and even galleries emptied of all artworks.

Simple Pleasures

Ralph Eugene Meatyard said that masks erased the differences between people. He photographed his family, shown here, in 1962.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Man Behind the Masks

The “dedicated amateur” photographer had a strange way of getting his subjects to reveal themselves

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Letters

Readers Respond to the September Issue

The Bat in Belfry

Bat Art Isn’t Bad Art

The genre of bat sculpture might not get much attention, but among the finest examples is a bronze by the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt

Saltillo Sarape, Maximilian Period c.1865 91 5/16 x 48 7/16 inches, wool, silk and metalic thread wefts on cotton warp Fred Harvey Collection, International Folk Art Foundation Collection, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Inscribed in the end border: "Epifanio Jemenez", probably the patron for whom it was woven.

Latin America’s Wrap for All Seasons

Blanket-like “sarapes” from northern Mexico are among the world’s most intriguing textiles, as shown by a recent gallery exhibition

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America’s Forgotten Landscape Painter: Robert S. Duncanson

Beloved by 19th-century audiences around the world, the African-American artist fell into obscurity, only to be celebrated as a genius a century later

"Young Man and Woman in an Inn" by Franz Hals, 1623

Frans Hals and the Divided Self

The Metropolitan’s recent Frans Hals exhibition and other works by the Old Master showcase his surprisingly modern psychological insight

Art historian Henry Adams

Welcome to ARTiculations

A new Smithsonian.com blog sheds light on what’s happening in the world of art, artists, art museums and art history

Writer Gertrude Stein crisscrossed America for 191 days in 1934-'35. She gave 74 lectures in 37 cities in 23 states.

When Gertrude Stein Toured America

A 1934 barnstorming visit to her native country transformed Stein from a noteworthy but rarely glimpsed author into a national celebrity

When designing the first Macintosh computer, Steve Jobs remembered his calligraphy course at Reed College and built it all into the Mac. "It was the first computer with beautiful typography," said Jobs.

A Tribute to a Great Artist: Steve Jobs

Through mastering calligraphy in college, Jobs learned to think like an artist

Among the artists who emerged in the 1950s and '60s, Willem de Kooning, shown here in 1953, defied categorization.

Willem de Kooning Still Dazzles

A new major retrospective recounts the artist’s seven-decade career and never-ending experimentation

Shih Chieng Huang's installations are featured in an exhibit at the Natural History Museum through January 8, 2012.

What’s Up

Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden discusses his new book and the scandal that surrounded him after he returned to earth in 1971.

Apollo 15’s Al Worden on Space and Scandal

The astronaut talks about his lunar mission, the scandal that followed and the future of space missions

The photographs of the Empress Dowager Cixi taken by Xunling are more Western than Eastern in style.

Presenting China’s Last Empress Dowager

The early 20th-century photograph of Empress Dowager Cixi captures political spin, Qing dynasty-style

I Am A Man, Sanitation workers assemble outside Clayborn Temple, Memphis, TN, 1968.

The Power of Imagery in Advancing Civil Rights

“Whether it was TV or magazines, the world got changed one image at a time,” says Maurice Berger, curator of a new exhibit at American History

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