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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Jo van Gogh-Bonger and her son Vincent Willem, as photographed in Paris in 1890

New Biography Spotlights Jo Bonger, Sister-in-Law Who Helped Rescue van Gogh From Obscurity

Bonger, wife of van Gogh’s brother Theo, described her mission as ‘getting [Vincent’s work] seen and appreciated as much as possible’

A William Blake illustration depicting the fall of Adam and Eve

Cool Finds

Student Discovers Secret Acrostic in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’

A Tufts University undergraduate spotted three interlocking instances of the word “FALL” in Book 9 of the epic poem

The Redemption of Vanity, a work of art by MIT artist in residence Diemut Strebe in conjunction with with Brian L. Wardle, MIT professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with Luiz Acauan and Estelle Cohen.

There’s a New Blackest Black in Town

Artist Diemut Strebe covered a $2 million diamond with a substance that absorbs 99.995 percent of any incoming light

Trending Today

American Woman Becomes First Person to Swim English Channel Four Times, Nonstop

Sarah Thomas took 54 hours to cross from England to France and back again twice, just a year after battling cancer

Milton's admiration for Shakespeare is well-documented

Is This John Milton’s Annotated Copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio?

A copy of the Bard’s collected plays may contain notes penned by the ‘Paradise Lost’ author

Researchers studied brain mapping in two professional foot painters

Art Meets Science

Inside the Brains of Artists Who Paint With Their Feet

Two artists born without arms possess complex “toe maps” similar to more typical neural “hand maps”

Here is the first sculpted version of the 'plastic army women' collector series.

‘Little Green Army Men’ Will Soon Feature Female Toy Soldiers

“Girls should be able to connect to the toys just as much as boys do,” the toys’ manufacturer says

Courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum.

Why the Amsterdam Museum Will No Longer Use the Term ‘Dutch Golden Age’

The museum contends that the moniker, which is often used to describe the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, ignores the brutalities of the period

Andrea del Verrocchio, "Head of a Woman With Braided Hair," c. 1475-1478

The Man Who Mentored da Vinci Receives First U.S. Retrospective

National Gallery of Art spotlights Andrea del Verrocchio, a skilled sculptor and painter whose individual accomplishments have long been overlooked

Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre

Exploring Paul Revere’s Legacy Beyond His Famed Midnight Ride

Before becoming an American legend, the Revolutionary War hero was best known as a skilled artisan, activist and entrepreneur

A New Monopoly Celebrates Women. But What About the Game’s Own Overlooked Inventor?

At the turn of the 20th century, Lizzie Magie created the Landowner’s Game, which sought to teach players about the injustices of wealth concentration

"Being Human" features some 50 works of art and artifacts

Art Meets Science

This London Gallery Is Working to Be One of the World’s Most Accessible Museums

The Wellcome Collection’s latest permanent exhibition focuses on design features and curatorial approaches suggested by individuals with disabilities

Trolley--New Orleans, 1955

Photographer Robert Frank, Who Exposed the Alienation and Heartbreak of America, Dies at 94

‘I was tired of romanticism,’ Frank once said. ‘I wanted to present what I saw, pure and simple.’

A picture taken on September 8, 2019 shows a Swastika formed with red carpets by artist Ralph Posset during the opening of an exhibition entitled "Design of the Third Reich" at the Design Museum Den Bosch, in 's-Hertogenbosch, central Netherlands. - The exhibition will show the contribution of design to the development of the Nazi ideology.

Dutch Museum Faces Protest Over Exhibition on Nazi Design

The show focused on how design furthered the ‘development of the evil Nazi ideology,’ but critics worry the show glorifies Nazi aesthetics

A local culture association has urged the government to move the rocks to a permanently dry location

Drought Reveals Dolmen of Guadalperal, Popularly Dubbed ‘Spanish Stonehenge’

Construction of a dam and reservoir in 1963 flooded the archaeological site, submerging the megalith monument and hiding it from view

Trending Today

Help Find the Owners of More Than 100 Recovered Artworks

Stolen around Los Angeles in 1993, the paintings and antiques were recently recovered by LAPD when some were brought to an auction house

The Met is seeking a curator of Native American art

The Met Is Hiring Its First Full-Time Curator of Native American Art

The ideal candidate will have ‘[d]emonstrable connections with descendent communities’

Rock art in Vallegrande in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Wildfires Are Destroying Bolivia’s Rock Art

Blazes set by farmers hoping to clear land for agriculture pose a threat to archaeological sites across the South American country

Kimberly Teehee photographed in 2010.

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

Kimberly Teehee Will Be the Cherokee Nation’s First Delegate to Congress

The nomination, promised in an 1835 treaty, is still pending as of July 2020

The coins are currently being analyzed by experts at the British Museum

Cool Finds

Medieval Coin Hoard Offers Evidence of Early Tax Evasion

Metal detector enthusiasts in England unearthed a trove of 2,528 coins while searching in Somerset

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