Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Coffee Table by Wendell Castle, 1958

Wendell Castle, The Man Who Made Furniture Dance, Dead at 85

The haunting sculpture Ghost Clock is a favorite Smithsonian artwork and a powerful example of the artist’s skill and craft

January Happenings At the Smithsonian

Blow away winter blues with our recommended list of film, lectures, concerts and more

Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

Happy Holidays! The Smithsonian is Closed on Christmas Day

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ on the National Mall

This year's crop of Smithsonian winter shows is as disparate as it is delightful.

This Holiday Season, Make Merry in a Museum

From heavenly light shows to diabolical dollhouses, the Smithsonian’s winter exhibitions offer something for everyone

Viewers are invited to sprawl on the carpeted floor and look up.

People Are Lying on the Floor To See this Dazzling Ceiling Puzzle

The work pays homage to the vaulted domes, ornate Italianate arches and Art Deco geometric forms of nine of the nation’s historic ceilings

Thomas Wilfred Sitting at the Clavilux “Model E,” about 1924

This Artist Painted With Light. An Admiring Astronomer Helped Make Him a Star

The works and machinations of Thomas Wilfred, a lone performer, inventor and visionary, are now on view

New York Seen from the Terrace [Nueva York desde la terraza] by Rufino Tamayo, 1937

A Mexican Painter Changed by the City, Changes Art 

“In New York, I went berserk over painting,” said Rufino Tamayo, whose works are now on view in a new retrospective

American Girl by Emma Amos, from the portfolio "Impressions: Our World, Volume I," 1974

Women Who Shaped History

Why Making a Portrait of a Black Woman Was a Form of Protest

For Emma Amos, an African-American artist working in the 1970s, the personal was often political

Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta by Kara Walker, 2005, from the portfolio Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

How Kara Walker Boldly Rewrote Civil War History

The artist gives 150-year-old illustrations a provocative update at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Rick Araluce's The Final Stop, installed at the Renwick Gallery, is a world unto itself.

At This Spectral Subway Platform, Trains Approach But Never Arrive

An otherworldly art installation debuts at the Renwick just in time for Halloween

Three-Room Dwelling (detail) by Frances Glessner Lee, about 1944-46

Home Is Where the Corpse Is—at Least in These Dollhouse Crime Scenes

Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies” exemplify the intersection of forensic science and craft

This resplendent Tibetan shrine room will greet visitors to the Sackler Gallery's upcoming "Encountering the Buddha" exhibition.

From Egyptian Cats to Crime Scenes, Here’s a Preview of the Smithsonian’s Upcoming Shows

Gallery-goers in D.C. and NYC are in for a mental workout with shows that deliver on everything from the experimental to the traditional

This is Harlem, 1943

Why the Works of Visionary Artist Jacob Lawrence Still Resonate a Century After His Birth

His vibrant and bold paintings tell stories of liberation, resistance and resilience

The cornerstone of the edifice was laid by Andrew Jackson in 1836. The third-oldest public building currently standing in Washington, D.C. (behind the White House and Capitol), it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

The Fused History of Two of Washington, D.C.’s Beloved Museums

A new exhibition sheds light on the enduring legacy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery

Piri Thomas by Máximo Colón, 1972

Why Piri Thomas’ Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today

“Down These Mean Streets” was an instant classic, a text of painful truths

Firemen March 6 1985 by Donald Sultan, 1985

This Artist’s Worldview Drips With Unending Pessimism

“Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will be destroyed,” says painter Donald Sultan of his “Disaster Paintings”

65 East 125th Street, Harlem by Camilo José Vergara, 1977

Watch How One Harlem Storefront Changes Over Nearly Four Decades

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition goes “Down These Mean Streets”

The First Couple head to the inauguration ceremony, Washington, DC, January 20, 1961

JFK’s Presidency Was Custom Made for the Golden Age of Photojournalism

A new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum concentrates on the White House’s most photogenic couple

Stragglers—French Wounded in the Retreat of Chateau-Thierry by Claggett Wilson, ca. 1919

World War I: 100 Years Later

After Nearly a Century in Storage, These World War I Artworks Still Deliver the Vivid Shock of War

Pulled from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Claggett Wilson’s watercolors are in a traveling show

Peter Voulkos in his Glendale Boulevard Studio in Los Angeles California

The Ceramicist Who Punched His Pots

Influenced by avant-garde poets, writers and Pablo Picasso, Peter Voulkos experimented with the increasingly unconventional

Page 8 of 12