Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Art

Officials unveiled the portal installation in Philadelphia's LOVE Park on October 22.

New ‘Portal’ Opens in Philadelphia, Connecting Residents to Cities Around the World With Identical Installations

The looming sculpture features a small camera above an eight-foot-tall screen, which displays live video from Lithuania, Poland and Ireland

Medieval women’s lives were “more vibrant than people expect,” says lead curator Eleanor Jackson, “and [visitors] will be surprised by the sheer variety of roles” that they occupied in the fields of politics, religion and the arts.

These Rare Artifacts Tell Medieval Women’s Stories in Their Own Words

A new exhibition at the British Library explores the public, private and spiritual lives of such figures as Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan and Hildegard of Bingen

Mask, Jackson Pollock, 1941

Before He Created His Vibrant Drip Paintings, Jackson Pollock Took Inspiration From Pablo Picasso

A new exhibition in Paris demonstrates the influence that the Spanish artist had on the young American painter who would help usher in the Abstract Expressionist movement

The four songs are expected to sell for around $261,000. 

Four Unreleased Jimi Hendrix Demo Recordings Billed as ‘Better Than the Originals’ Are Going Up for Sale

Created in London in the 1960s, the tracks are heading to auction as part of a larger collection of memorabilia connected to the famous American guitarist

 Portrait de Berthe Weill (Portrait of Berthe Weill), Émilie Charmy, 1910-14

This Art Dealer Paved the Way for Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. So Why Haven’t You Heard of Her?

A new exhibition in New York celebrates Berthe Weill, an often overlooked but visionary figure who jumpstarted the careers of many of modern art’s giants

A selection of the bounty from Isabella Dalla Ragione’s orchard, including apples, pears, plums, almonds, hazelnuts and grapes.

Meet the Italian ‘Fruit Detective’ Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings for Clues About Produce That Has Disappeared From the Kitchen Table

Renaissance paintings, medieval archives, cloistered orchards—how one Italian scientist is uncovering secrets that could help combat a growing agricultural crisis

The seven-foot-tall Apollo Belvedere is thought to be a Roman copy of a Greek statue.

See the Vatican’s Magnificent Marble Statue of the Greek God Apollo Restored to Its Former Glory

Experts added a carbon fiber pole to help anchor the “Apollo Belvedere,” which had developed cracks along the legs and knees. Now, the looming Roman sculpture is finally back on display

Tsegi Spider Rock, DY Begay, 2007

How an Indigenous Weaver’s Mastery of Color Infuses Her Tapestries With a Life Force

The work of Diné artist DY Begay, now on view at the National Museum of the American Indian, blends tradition and modernity

An aerial view of the new park modeled after Vincent van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece The Starry Night

This Park Recreates Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ With a Dazzling Display of Plants, Trees and Winding Pathways

At a new park in Bosnia and Herzegovina, two dozen gardeners have spent years replicating the Dutch artist’s masterpiece using the land as their canvas

Marina Abramović standing on the Great Wall of China during her collaborative piece with Ulay in 1988

Nearly 40 Years After She Walked the Great Wall of China, Marina Abramović Returns to the Country With a New Exhibition

“Transforming Energy,” the artist’s first museum show in China, focuses on “artworks and objects that actively engage the audience”

All the Good Times We Spent Together (2016) by French artist Alexandre Lavet is a painted recreation of two Jupiler beer cans.

Museum Workers Have Rescued an Artwork From the Trash After a Mechanic Mistook It for Garbage

A Dutch museum famous for displaying art in unconventional locations had placed a pair of painted beer cans in a glass elevator shaft

Volunteers looked at the original artworks in the museum and posters in the gift shop.

Art Meets Science

Seeing Vermeer’s ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ in Person Stimulates the Brain More Than Looking at Reprints, Study Suggests

Scientists used EEG headsets, MRI machines and eye trackers to study volunteers’ responses to five paintings housed at the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands

Bord de Mer (Seaside), Claude Monet, circa 1865

A Rare Monet Painting Has Been Returned to the Family of Its Rightful Owners—Eight Decades After It Was Stolen by the Nazis

The Gestapo seized the Impressionist painting from storage after its owners fled from their home in Vienna. Now, the piece has been returned to their granddaughters

Self-Portrait With Loose Hair, Frida Kahlo, 1947

This Exhibition Is Betting That You Don’t Know Frida Kahlo as Well as You May Think

“Frida: Beyond the Myth” aims to paint an intimate portrait of the artist through dozens of works created by Kahlo and photographs taken by her loved ones

The memorial artwork hadn't been seen since the 1970s, when it was placed on a replica of Kennedy's gravesite in Upperville, Virginia.

Untold Stories of American History

A Secret Sculpture Built for John F. Kennedy’s Grave Vanished in the 1970s. Half a Century Later, the Mystery Has Been Solved

The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president’s grave during his burial

Andy Warhol made 46 copies of this print depicting Vladimir Lenin.

The FBI Recovers an Andy Warhol Print Worth $175,000 That Vanished From a Private Home in 2021

A man is expected to plead guilty for trafficking the print, which reappeared at a Dallas auction house shortly after it went missing from a California residence

Masset, QCI, Emily Carr, 1912

Cool Finds

An Art Dealer Bought This Painting at a Barn Sale for $50. It Turned Out to Be an Emily Carr Worth Nearly $150,000

The Canadian Post-Impressionist artist was famous for her evocative landscapes and paintings incorporating motifs from First Nations groups

The hurricane wreaked havoc on the neighborhood, destroying artworks, supplies, studios and galleries. 

Hurricane Helene’s Floodwaters Damaged 80 Percent of Buildings in Asheville’s River Arts District

Home to more than 300 artists, the neighborhood was submerged under the record-high waters of the French Broad River

View on the Stour Near Dedham, John Constable, 1822

Art Meets Science

How Artists, Writers and Scientists of the Past Documented Climate Change

An exhibition at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens explores how Western intellectuals viewed the climate crisis between 1780 and 1930

Virgin Mary, Infant Christ and the Young St. John the Baptist, studio of Sandro Botticelli, circa 1510

New Research

This Painting Was Thought to Be a Botticelli Copy. Now, Researchers Say It Was Made in His Studio

A new analysis suggests that the piece was created by several artists working in the Italian Renaissance painter’s studio—and that Botticelli himself may have worked on important details

Page 24 of 168