Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Art

A rendering of Oscar Tuazon’s Eternal Flame for Scott Burton 

With a Beam of Light, the New York City AIDS Memorial Honors the Nearly Forgotten Legacy of This Great American Sculptor

A new sculpture draws on materials and ideas from Scott Burton’s artwork, which offered comfort in urban spaces. His final public series was a set of benches and lights on piers in Brooklyn

Nymphéas, Claude Monet, 1907 

When Claude Monet Planted Water Lilies, Inspiration Struck. An Upcoming Auction Will Test How Much Collectors Prize the Floral Masterpieces

The marquee painting from Monet’s “Nymphéas” series is expected to fetch more than $40 million at auction later this month

FCB Cadell painted Interior: The Lady in Black in the 1920s.

Cool Finds

With A.I.’s Help, a Family Realized Their Mysterious Thrift-Store Find Is a Portrait by a Great Scottish Painter

The oil painting, the work of “Scottish Colorist” FCB Cadell, just sold at auction for more than $250,000

Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, Bonifacio Bembo

See Visions of the Past and Future in This New York City Exhibition on the Renaissance Roots of Tarot Cards

The Morgan Library & Museum traces the history of beautifully illustrated tarot cards from their origins as a card game to modern occult fascination

The drawings were done by Stephen Verona, and John Lennon helped color them in.

Rediscovered Drawings John Lennon Helped Create for the Beatles Became One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s First Music Videos

An English collector who acquired ten of the drawings at an auction loaned them to the Liverpool Beatles Museum for a temporary exhibition

An artistic rendering of Labrujasuchus expectatus

Meet the ‘Witch Croc,’ a Strange Ancient Crocodile Relative With Two Legs and No Teeth That Roamed New Mexico During the Triassic

The reptile, a dinosaur look-alike called a shuvosaur, represents a long-awaited discovery that helps paleontologists fill a gap in the fossil record

None

What Key West’s Art Scene Reveals About America’s Creative Spirit

At the edge of the United States, a sun-drenched island has been quietly fueling one of the country’s most distinctive creative scenes

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

The genius of her work was in painting things as she saw them through her own eyes. So when she surrounded herself with beauty, her work reflected it

The painted wall in 2024, enhanced on the right by a DStretch filter

Cool Finds

A Century After Causing Controversy, Red Cave Markings in Wales Are Classified Again as Britain’s Oldest Rock Art

The team of scientists used modern dating methods to confirm an old hypothesis by the rock art’s initial discoverers

Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan

Someone Stole a Banana Duct-Taped to the Wall of a French Museum. One of Its Duplicates Fetched More Than $6 Million at Auction

This isn’t the first time the fruit at the center of the infamous “Comedian” art piece has been stolen or eaten

Joplin, Missouri, located along historic Route 66, is hosting the World Street Painting festival. This artwork is from a 2025 festival.

Asphalt Is the Canvas for This Year’s World Street Painting Festival in Joplin, Missouri, Which Honors 100 Years of Route 66

Immersive paintings, which function as massive optical illusions, pay tribute to the “Mother Road” and its influence on American culture

A rendering of the new Centre Pompidou Hanwha museum, called a “box of light,” in Seoul

Korean and French Culture Are Set to Rendezvous at a New Museum in Seoul for Modern and Contemporary Art

The Centre Pompidou Hanwha, the newest member of a growing global network of art museums, will debut with an exhibition on European cubism and Korean art

A kibble Mona Lisa on display

Using Colorful Dog Kibble, Artists Turn ‘Mona Lisa,’ ‘The Scream’ and ‘The Kiss’ Into Museum Masterpieces That Man’s Best Friend Can Appreciate

Sisters from New Jersey spent two months recreating famous artworks while also making sure their dog didn’t get into the edible art supplies

Detail from Hilma af Klint's Retable, No. 1 (1915)

Meet Hilma af Klint, the Occultist Who Believed Otherworldly Spirits Told Her What to Paint. Now, She’s Considered One of History’s First Abstract Artists

The Swedish painter created bold, vibrant works as early as 1906—several years before contemporaries like Wassily Kandinsky. A new exhibition in France celebrates her sweeping “Paintings for the Temple” series

No likenesses of Ona Judge survive today. The only surviving description of her comes from a runaway ad, which states that she was “a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy black hair. She is of middle stature, slender and delicately formed, about 20 years of age.”

Ona Judge Escaped From Slavery While George Washington Was Busy Eating Dinner Inside. Now, a New Mural Honors Her Legacy

The artwork in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, shows Judge arriving in the city after her journey from Philadelphia in May 1796. She remained a free woman until her death in 1848

The sycamore tree before it was felled in 2023

How Do You Honor a Fallen Tree? In England, a Sound Sculpture Will Broadcast the ‘Voice’ of a Beloved Sycamore Felled Near Hadrian’s Wall

“The People’s Tree” will also incorporate the tree’s wood and archive recordings from the public in a series of community artworks

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, James McNeill Whistler, 1871

Whistler Didn’t Mean to Make His Mourning Mother an Art World Star. Today, She’s a Highlight at a Major Exhibition in London

Officially titled ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1,’ James McNeill Whistler’s stoic portrait of his mother has come to define the artist’s style and legacy. The artwork is currently on display in the same city where it was painted more than 150 years ago

A detail from Jackson Pollock's Number 7A, 1948

What Did Jackson Pollock Hope to Accomplish With This Dizzying Drip Painting, Which Just Sold for a Record-Breaking $181 Million?

The Abstract Expressionist is best known for his action paintings, which emphasized the movements of the artist’s body during the creative process. “Number 7A, 1948” is now his most expensive work ever auctioned

La Caverne du Pont Neuf under construction in Paris

The Oldest Bridge in Paris Was Swallowed Overnight by a Giant, Inflatable Cave in the Latest Artwork by the ‘French Banksy’

French street artist JR chose the Pont Neuf bridge as the canvas for his latest larger-than-life art installation, created with audio accompaniment by a Daft Punk musician

Museumgoers can read the labels on the backs of the paintings, which may provide clues about each work's provenance.

Who Are the Owners of These Nazi-Looted Masterpieces—and Could Displaying Them at One of France’s Most Popular Museums Help Track Them Down?

A new permanent display at the Musée d’Orsay showcases artworks that may have been stolen or sold under suspicious circumstances during World War II. Officials are still hoping to find the families of their rightful owners

Page 1 of 167