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Art History

Bisa Butler, I Am Not Your Negro, 2019. Cotton, wool and chiffon, quilted and appliquéd. 79 x 60 in.

Artist Bisa Butler Stitches Together the African American Experience

Her dynamic quilts that reimagine old portraits will be on display in New York in her first solo exhibition

Researchers have discovered a hidden painting beneath Picasso's Still Life (1922).

Cool Finds

Abandoned Artwork Discovered Beneath Pablo Picasso Painting

The artist, who regularly reused canvases, covered a neoclassical still life with a Cubist one

Frans Snyders' Fruit Stall features a vast spread of produce from the 17th century.

Art Meets Science

Centuries-Old Paintings Help Researchers Track Food Evolution

Art inadvertently documents the domestication of carrots, wheat, watermelon and other culinary delights

The Renaissance artist died in 1520 at age 37.

New Research Suggests Bloodletting, Pneumonia Killed Raphael

The artist failed to disclose his late-night outings to physicians, leading them to misdiagnose his illness

Socrates Sculpture Park is located in Queens—New York's most diverse borough, and also the hardest hit by COVID-19.

Covid-19

Are Sculpture Parks Having a Moment in the Sun?

Many art museums are still closed due to COVID-19, but open gardens and parks on their grounds are attracting eager visitors

The violin-shaped artifacts lack signs of wear associated with use as tools or weapons.

Cool Finds

Do These 10,000-Year-Old Flint Artifacts Depict Human Figures?

Archaeologists say the objects’ grooves evoke the hips and the narrowing of the neck around the shoulders

Archaeologists discovered rock art engraved inside this 4,000-year-old stone monument in northern Israel. Illustrations highlight the herd of horned animal figures etched into the boulder.

Cool Finds

Millennia-Old Rock Art in Israel Offers Window Into Lost Culture

The carvings depict animals, geometric designs and what may be a human face

Coming Home, a 1947 painting purportedly by Gertrude Abercrombie, is one of the works now suspected to be a forgery.

FBI Raids Northern Michigan Home Linked to Suspected Art Forgery Ring

Paintings formerly attributed to Gertrude Abercrombie, Ralston Crawford and George Ault are now thought to be fakes

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, I See Red: Target, 1992

National Gallery of Art Acquires Its First Painting by a Native American Artist

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s work addresses questions of identity and appropriation

A black musician seen in Piero di Cosimo's Perseus Frees Andromeda, 1510-1515

How the Uffizi Gallery Is Highlighting Black Figures in Renaissance Art

Each Saturday, the Florentine museum will release a new educational video on TikTok and Facebook

Frida Kahlo, circa 1950

Why Scholars Are Skeptical of Claimed Rediscovery of Lost Frida Kahlo Masterpiece

“The Wounded Table,” a 1940 work by the Mexican painter, disappeared 65 years ago

The frame is the "mother holding its child,” says the Smithsonian's Martin Kotler. Many frames are works of art in their own right—and deserve to be seen as such.

Is It Time to Recognize Frames as an Independent Art Form?

In a fairly new field, the picture frame may finally be coming into its own

The "restored" painting may be a copy of this 17th-century work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Botched Art Restoration Renders Virgin Mary Unrecognizable

The failed makeover—one of several to surface in Spain in recent years—has prompted calls for stricter regulation of the field

The copy of the Last Supper held at the Royal Academy of Arts is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci's pupils Giampietrino and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.

See ‘The Last Supper’ in a New High-Resolution Scan Online

Based on a copy made by Leonardo da Vinci’s pupils, the image will be useful to scholars and the public alike

John Everett Millais, The Bridesmaid, 1851

Covid-19

U.K. Museum Reimagines Classic Art With Face Masks

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has released greeting cards of six paintings adapted for this “most unusual year”

Fatherhood can appear in a myriad of ways in art; one constant is love.

Fourteen Works of Art Portray the Bonds of Fatherhood Across Time and Culture

Celebrate Father’s Day with works pulled from the Smithsonian collections

This wall painting features musicians in European clothing on the left and a dancer in a traditional feathered cape on the right.

Cool Finds

Renovations Reveal Rare Maya Murals Hidden in Guatemalan Home

The wall paintings may chart the decline of Spanish colonial influence and resurgence of indigenous culture

Researchers recently identified the unnamed sitter in this portrait as Mary Boleyn, older sister of Anne Boleyn.

After Hundreds of Years, Unknown Woman in Tudor Portrait Identified as Mary Boleyn

New evidence suggests the painting depicts Anne Boleyn’s older sister, the one-time mistress of Henry VIII

Works by German artist Paul Klee are projected on June 3, 2020, at the Bassins de Lumières digital art center in Bordeaux.

Former Nazi Submarine Base Transformed Into Digital Art Gallery

The concrete bunker once housed Axis U-boats. Now, it features floor-to-ceiling projections of works by Gustav Klimt, Paul Klee

This month's selections include The Beauty and the Terror, Feasting Wild and Splash.

Books of the Month

The Dangers of Space, Military Rivals and Other New Books to Read

These five recent releases may have been lost in the news cycle

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