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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is the first print in Katsushika Hokusai's series Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji

The Enduring Influence of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’

A rare early print of the iconic image sold for a record-breaking $2.8 million at auction

Ai Weiwei's Water Lilies #1 will be on view starting April 7.

Ai Weiwei Unveils Recreation of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ Made Entirely of Legos

In a new exhibition, the renowned Chinese artist explores beauty, technology and growing up in exile

New York City's Flatiron Building is wedged between Fifth Avenue and Broadway.

New York City’s Iconic Flatiron Building Sells for $190 Million at Auction

The landmark hasn’t been up for public auction since the Great Depression, when it sold for $100,000

Dancers in Ukrainian Dress by Edgar Degas

The Met Is the Latest Museum to Reclassify Russian Art as Ukrainian

Amid the Russian invasion, museums are grappling with how to identify artists connected to Ukraine

The new logo's font is adapted from the city's subway signs.

The Love-Hate Relationship With New York City’s New Logo

Milton Glaser’s iconic “I Love NY” design gets an update—and not everybody loves it

Metallica band members Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett performing in Los Angeles last year

Metallica Just Bought Its Own Vinyl Record Factory

As demand spikes, the heavy metal band has purchased Furnace Record Pressing in Virginia

Claude Monet's 1874 portrait of his brother Léon

Claude Monet’s Older Brother Helped Shape the Impressionist Movement

A new exhibition explores the legacy of Léon Monet, who taught Claude about color and purchased his art

Van Gogh has made more than 150 paintings.

Paintings by Rescue Dog Named van Gogh Raise Thousands for Charity

A bidder has already offered $10,000 for the four-legged artist’s rendition of “The Starry Night”

An aerial view of the ongoing efforts to reconstruct Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, pictured in June 2021

Cool Finds

The 2019 Notre-Dame Fire Revealed Iron Staples Holding the Cathedral Together

The Paris landmark is the first known Gothic cathedral to use iron in this way, researchers say

Nina Simone's childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina

Venus Williams Is Joining a New Push to Restore Nina Simone’s Childhood Home

The singer-songwriter learned to play the piano in the 650-square-foot house

Vinyl record sales have growing for the past 15 years.

Vinyl Records Outsell CDs for First Time Since 1987

Music lovers in the United States bought 41 million vinyl albums and 33 million CDs in 2022

A puffin in soft light surrounded by faint raindrops.

See 15 Amazing Wildlife Images From the Sony World Photography Awards

The contest showcases the work of some of the planet’s best photographers

Still from "Masterpiece" featuring Coca-Cola's take on The Scream (1895)

Coca-Cola Uses Famous Paintings By Warhol, Munch and More to Sell Soda

The company’s new ad campaign, “Masterpiece,” brings iconic artworks to life

Director Richard Linklater won a Golden Globe Award for directing Boyhood (2014), which he shot over the course of 12 years.

Fans Worry They Won’t Live Long Enough to See Richard Linklater’s ‘Merrily We Roll Along’

The director is shooting his adaptation of the Sondheim musical over 20 years

Dream America (2015) by Violette Bule, a conceptual artist who worked in the service industry

How Artists’ Day Jobs Shape Their Craft

A new exhibition examines the generative relationship between work and creativity

The Source of the Lison (1864) by Gustave Courbet

Cool Finds

Workers Stumble Upon Lost Courbet Painting in University Basement

After a years-long authentication process, “The Source of the Lison” goes on display in Philadelphia

The new Toni Morrison stamp, which features a 1997 photograph by Deborah Feingold, was designed by Ethel Kessler.

Postal Service Unveils Forever Stamp Honoring Toni Morrison

A ceremony at Princeton celebrated the Nobel laureate whose words transformed American literature

The British architect David Chipperfield hopes to "address the existential challenges of climate change and societal inequality."

David Chipperfield Wins Pritzker Prize, the Highest Honor in Architecture

The civic-minded architect is respectful of the past as he pushes his field forward

Johannes Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis museum

Thousands of Artists Reimagine Vermeer’s ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’

A Dutch museum selected winning works by five artists—and one A.I. image generator

The top row shows the actual images participants looked at, while the bottom row shows an A.I. recreation of each image based on the participant's brain scans.

This A.I. Used Brain Scans to Recreate Images People Saw

The technology, which was tested with four people, is still in its infancy but could one day help people communicate or decode dreams, researchers say

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