Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Art

Montreal doctors will soon be able to prescribe free museum visits for patients and a limited number of loved ones or caregivers

Art Meets Science

Canadian Doctors Will Soon Be Able to Prescribe Museum Visits as Treatment

An afternoon of art may offer serotonin mood boost, welcome distraction from chronic pain

Untitled (Wash Day: Scrubbing the Clothes) by Clementine Hunter, ca. 1965

Self-Taught Artist Clementine Hunter Painted the Bold Hues of Southern Life

On view at NMAAHC, Hunter’s colorful artworks depict work in the field, church on Sundays, and laundry on the line

General Director Taco Dibbits with "The Night Watch"

You’ll Be Able to Watch Rembrandt’s Most Ambitious Work Be Restored In-Person—or Online

Experts at the Rijksmuseum estimate the process of conserving “The Night Watch” is expected to take several years

The animatronic mask is situated directly across from the traditional 1588 Armada portrait, which depicts a far more polished version of Queen Elizabeth I

What Did Elizabeth I Actually Look Like? This Artist Has a Suggestion

Mat Collishaw’s ‘Mask of Youth’ presents realistic depiction of the Tudor queen, explores her savvy command of public persona

Af Klint saw herself as a “holy transcriptionist, a technician of the unknown” whose work was simply a stepping stone in the pursuit of knowledge

From Obscurity, Hilma af Klint Is Finally Being Recognized as a Pioneer of Abstract Art

Before the modernists, the Swedish painter’s monumental canvases featured free-wheeling swirls, mysterious symbols, pastel palette

Trending Today

The Future Is Female for San Francisco’s Public Art Scene

A new ordinance means that at least 30 percent of new public art will depict notable women of history, beginning with Maya Angelou

Traylor's works (above: Man with Yoke, detail) are drawing fans worldwide for their exuberant modern composition and design.

Bill Traylor Depicted His Brutal Lifetime With Vibrant Art

A new Smithsonian show, seven years in the making, takes a deep dive into the life of a self-taught artist and former slave

"Propped" 1992

Trending Today

Jenny Saville Takes Title of Most Expensive Living Female Artist

Her 1992 nude self-portrait “Propped” sold for $12.4 million. But the record-breaking price lags behind the amount paid to the men’s holder of the title

Trending Today

Watch This $1.4 Million Banksy Painting Shred Itself As Soon As It’s Sold

The street artist hid a built-in shredder in the frame of the artwork when he created it in 2006

Headdress frontlet, ca. 1820–40, by a Tsimshian artist,  British Columbia.

Finally, a Native American Exhibition in the Met’s American Wing

91 of the objects on display were gifted to the museum on the condition that they be contextualized within the framework of America’s art history

Ma destinée (My destiny), 1867. Brown ink and wash and white gouache on paper.

Landmark Exhibition Brings Victor Hugo’s Forgotten Drawings Into Focus

The famed French author produced some 4,000 brooding, tempestuous artworks during his lifetime

Visitors interacting with the art at Tania Bruguera's new show

Cool Finds

This Art Exhibition Is Guaranteed to Make You Weep

Tania Bruguera’s new show at London’s Tate Modern includes a room spritzed with an organic compound to stimulate “forced empathy”

Art Meets Science

A New Project Weaves Patient Stories Into Art

A bioengineer collaborates with artists, clinicians and patients to come up with an art exhibition with heart

One of the human figures depicted in the newly documented petroglyphs

Cool Finds

An Unknown Ancient Civilization in India Carved This Rock Art

Hikers are cataloging the petroglyphs in the western part of Maharashtra state

In 2015, John T. Unger embarked on a project to recreate 14 of Eustachi’s drawings in life-size mosaics.

Art Meets Science

This Artist Redefines a “Chiseled Body”

Life-size and hyper-detailed, these anatomical mosaics draw on ancient inspiration

iPad art

Westminster Abbey’s Newest Window Was Designed by David Hockney—on an iPad

It was commissioned in celebration of Elizabeth II’s reign

Deep, lush colors in the Turkey Red Cabinet set of 1911 (above, Safe at Third) led many to tack these on their walls as works of art.

Would Baseball have Become America’s National Pastime Without Baseball Cards?

Tobacco companies spurred the mania, but artistry won the hearts of collectors

"Self-portrait" by Thomas Gainsborough

Did Murder Help Catalyze Thomas Gainsborough’s Early Career?

New documentary evidence suggests the famed artist’s uncle and cousin were victims of targeted killings

Michael D’Antuono, "The Talk"

NYC Pop-Up Exhibition Traces Broken Windows Policing’s Toll

The show explores how the policing of minor crimes has caused an uptick in racial profiling, particularly targeting African American and Latino communities

Cool Finds

Historian Identifies Subject of Van Gogh’s “Gardener”

The portrait is likely of a day laborer that worked on the grounds of the asylum where the troubled artist stayed near the end of his life

Page 101 of 167