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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait With Monkeys, 1943

How Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Defined Mexican Art in the Wake of Revolution

A touring exhibition now on view in Denver traces the formation of Mexican modernism

Art historians used clues in the paintings' artistic techniques to estimate their age.

Cool Finds

These Newly Discovered Buddhist Temple Paintings May Be Among Japan’s Oldest

Art historians used infrared photography to identify images that could date to around 685 A.D.

The Santa Claus and Rudolph puppets are expected to sell for between $150,000 and $250,000.

Iconic ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ Puppets Are Up for Auction

You could own the Santa and Rudolph figurines featured in the classic 1964 holiday special

Installation view of "Russian Avant-Garde at the Museum Ludwig: Original and Fake, Questions, Research, Explanations"

Why a German Museum Is Displaying Fake Paintings From Its Collections

A taboo-breaking exhibition at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig spotlights misattributed Russian avant-garde works

David Copperfield has sold more tickets than any other solo performer in history.

How Harry Houdini and David Copperfield’s Jewish Heritage Shaped Their Craft

The illusionists join Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Steven Spielberg in the National Museum of American Jewish History’s hall of fame

Kiliii Yuyan, Umiaq and north wind during spring whaling, 2019

How Indigenous Peoples Adapted to the Arctic’s Harsh Climate

A new exhibition at the British Museum spotlights an ingenious way of life threatened by global warming

Jacob Lawrence, There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. —Washington, 26 December 1786, Panel 16, 1956, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Jacob Lawrence Painting Spent 60 Years Hanging in NYC Apartment

A museum visitor realized she’d seen the missing work—part of the artist’s “Struggle” series—in her neighbor’s living room

Vanessa Bell, Self Portrait, c. 1952

Spotlighting 500 Years of Women in British Art, From Tudor Portraitists to the Bloomsbury Group

A new show at London’s Philip Mould & Company features works by Levina Teerlinc, Vanessa Bell and Clara Birnberg

Three 3,000-year-old balls discovered at the Yanghai cemetery complex in Xinjiang

Cool Finds

These Hair-Filled Leather Pouches Are the Oldest Balls Found in Eurasia

Some 3,000 years ago, Chinese horsemen may have used the objects to play a team sport involving hitting a ball

The show features 60 works by women and 70 by men, including Carlos Verger Fioretti's Phalaena (1920).

Why the Prado’s Show on Women in Art Is Facing Accusations of Misogyny

Critics say the exhibition, centered on the Spanish art world between 1833 and 1931, echoes “the very misogyny it has sought to expose”

Simone Leigh, an American sculptor, will represent the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

Meet the First Black Woman to Represent the U.S. at the Art World’s Biggest Fair

Simone Leigh, whose large-scale ceramics explore black female subjectivity, will exhibit her work at the 2022 Venice Biennale

“[It] was about to disappear because it’s situated on quite a steep slope that’s prone to the effects of natural erosion,” Peru's Ministry of Culture explains.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Nazca Line Featuring Lounging Cat Found in Peru

The enormous glyph is one of hundreds of ancient etchings scattered across the arid region

The pandemic has been devastating for both child care workers and families that depend on them.

Covid-19

Covid-19’s Impact on Working Women Is an Unprecedented Disaster

In September, 865,000 women left the workforce, with effects playing out differently for those of different races and classes

A rare edition of Shakespeare's First Folio sold at auction for $10 million.

Shakespeare’s First Folio Is the Most Expensive Work of Literature Ever Auctioned

A rare edition of the 1623 volume of plays sold at Christie’s for nearly $10 million

A digital reconstruction of the newly unearthed Norse godhouse

Cool Finds

Ruins of Eighth-Century Pagan Temple Found in Norway

The structure—built to honor Norse gods like Thor and Odin—is the first of its kind discovered in the country

Cindy Sherman, Untitled 584, 2017-2018

Why Photographer Cindy Sherman Is Still the Queen of Reinvention

A retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton highlights the artist’s manipulation of femininity and identity

Peter Paul Rubens' sketch of The Battle of Anghiari, c. 1603

Does Leonardo da Vinci’s Missing Masterpiece Actually Exist?

New research suggests the artist completed preparatory work for “The Battle of Anghiari” but failed to finish the painting

The statue, which stands across from the New York County Criminal Courthouse, inverts the myth of Perseus slaying Medusa.

Why a New Statue of Medusa Is So Controversial

The gorgon, seen holding Perseus’ severed head, stands across from the court where Harvey Weinstein was tried

The stolen items' owner estimates their value at around $645 million.

A Stolen Mao Zedong Scroll Was Found Cut in Half

Prior to the defacement, the nine-foot-long calligraphy work was valued at an estimated $300 million

The house that served as Buffalo Bill's lair in Silence of the Lambs is on sale for $298,500.

You Could Own the House of Horrors From ‘Silence of the Lambs’

The property appeared as serial killer Buffalo Bill’s lair in the classic 1991 film

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