Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Art

Yayoi Kusama in her New York studio:

Yayoi Kusama, High Priestess of Polka Dots

The avant-garde Japanese artist attains retrospective status—and embarks on a fashion collaboration with Louis Vuitton

None

The Swimsuit Series, Part 6: Ladies in Wading in Art

A look at how artists spent their summer vacations—at the beach

Living Better Now

Q&A: Jayson Musson Breaks Down Coogi Sweaters

With the ‘80s and ‘90s status-symbol clothing a bargain on eBay, the Brooklyn artist buys, disassembles and reconstructs them to make abstract “paintings”

None

Packing List Series, Part 2: An Artist’s Illustrated Guide

With a watercolor sketchbook guide, Adolf Konrad drew on his talents to record his belongings

None

The Swimsuit Series, Part 4: A Competitive Swimmer’s Musings

In Leanne Shapton’s Swimming Studies “Bathing” chapter, there’s a story behind every suit

None

The Swimsuit Series, Part 2: Beauty Pageants and the Inevitable Swimsuit Competition

In the latest chapter of the series, we look at how bathing suits came to be an integral part of the Miss America competition

None

Welcome to Threaded! And a Dig Through the Archives

Welcome to Threaded, your go-to fashion blog for all things historical and sartorial

None

Those (Waxed Fruit) Times

The artist pays tribute to a family centerpiece that was both inedible and indelible

None

Chickens Dressed Like Napoleon, Einstein and Other Historical Figures

They came, they clucked and they conquered. Get the story behind these absurd portraits and how they came to be

Ai WeiWei's "Fragments" is now on display at the Sackler Gallery.

Past and Present Clash in Ai WeiWei’s “Fragments”

“Fragments,” the second of three Ai WeiWei exhibitions this year, opens at the Sackler Gallery

Red Fuji is one of Katsushika Hokusai's most famous prints.

Celebrate the Cherry Blossoms With Hokusai, the Old Man Mad About Art

Meditate on “36 Views of Mt. Fuji” by Japan’s most famous artist, Katsushika Hokusai, at the Sackler Gallery March 24 through June 17

Steven M. Cummings' "Artuare" is one of the exhibitions in the Anacostia Community Museum's series, "Call and Response: Community and Creativity."

Local Artists Blend Brand and Art at the Anacostia Community Museum

“Artuare” and “Conversations in the Contemporary” blur the definitions of commercial and fine art

A photograph (A) and outline (B) of the human-like drawing

Oldest American Rock Art Found in Brazil

The petroglyph, with a head, hands and “oversized phallus” is around 10,000 years old

In his illustrated books, Patel distills the gods and goddesses down to their essentials as shown in this illustration from Ramayana: Divine Loophole (2010).

Sanjay Patel: A Hipster’s Guide to Hinduism

The 36-year-old pop artist and Pixar veteran brings a modern twist to the gods and demons of Hindu mythology

The craze for collecting toy soldiers began with the French in the 18th century. In this scene, British foot soldiers attack a French officer.

The Great Battles of History, in Miniature

At a museum in Valencia, Spain, over one million toy soldiers stand at attention, prepared to reenact the wars that shaped the world

Stubbornly original, Still intended his art to “be engaged in that which exalts the spirit of man.” To achieve that, he said, “a fresh start must be made.”

Clyfford Still’s Sublime Art

A new museum devoted exclusively to the work of the abstract painter is opening in Denver. A leading critic takes a close look at one masterwork

In Robert Walter Weir’s c. 1838 canvas of St. Nicholas (detail), perhaps influenced by a Washington Irving story, the painter envisioned both an enigmatic trickster and a dispenser of holiday cheer.

A Mischievous St. Nick from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The 19th-century artist Robert Walter Weir took inspiration from Washington Irving to create a prototype of Santa Claus

None

America’s Forgotten Landscape Painter: Robert S. Duncanson

Beloved by 19th-century audiences around the world, the African-American artist fell into obscurity, only to be celebrated as a genius a century later

BK Adams's likeness appears locally

“Exercise Your Mynd—BK Adams I Am Art” Brightens Up the Anacostia Museum

The boldly-colored paintings and sculptures of Washington D.C.’s own BK Adams enliven the museum’s main gallery

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831-1833, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Samuel Morse’s Other Masterpiece

The famous inventor’s painting of Gallery of the Louvre is as much a fascinating work of art as a 19th century history lesson

Page 157 of 168