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Artists

The Deserted Cottage (circa 1797) is the original drawing for Constable's only surviving etching from the period.

Cool Finds

Early John Constable Sketches Spent 200 Years Forgotten in a Family Scrapbook

The four watercolor drawings and pencil portraits will be featured in an upcoming Sotheby’s sale

McCubbin's Found spent 115 years hidden beneath the surface of The Pioneer, a 1904 painting widely heralded as one of Australia's greatest masterpieces.

Cool Finds

Missing Australian Masterpiece Spent 115 Years Hiding in Plain Sight

Impressionist Frederick McCubbin painted “The Pioneer” (1904) over an earlier work titled “Found”

An Italian art historian posits that the red chalk drawing of Jesus is a study for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi.

Art Historian Claims a Newly Discovered Drawing Is the Work of Leonardo da Vinci

Much like “Salvator Mundi,” the proposed da Vinci sketch is likely to attract intense scrutiny

Lorna Truck and Tim Benson. Photograph documenting burning of Robert Pincus-Witten's book Postminimalism (1977) at the request of artist Buster Cleveland as part of the 1979 Des Moines Festival of the Avant-Garde, circa 1979.

Smithsonian Voices

Meet the Pioneering Virtual Artist Fred Truck

By using electronic tools to facilitate communications between artists and computer-based artworks, Truck established himself as a pivotal figure

A carving on the wall of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio may be the work of Michelangelo.

Did Michelangelo Carve a Graffiti Portrait Into This Florentine Facade?

New research highlights similarities between an etching on the Palazzo Vecchio and a sketch attributed to the Renaissance artist

Installation view of "Objects of Desire," which features such Surrealist creations as a stool topped with a bicycle wheel

Step Into a Surrealist World Populated by Horse-Shaped Lamps and Bicycle Tables

An exhibition in Madrid traces the enduring connection between Surrealism and design

The original sculpture (left) and the "restored" version (right)

Botched Art Restoration in Spain Renders Smiling Statue Unrecognizable

A disfigured carving in Palencia is the latest in a growing list of bungled conservation attempts by amateurs

Left, 19th century visitors view Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) by Emanuel Leutze; right, 21st- century visitors gaze upon the same work.

Celebrating 150 Years of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

An exhibition and a slate of virtual offerings commemorate the history of the iconic New York City institution

The prolific painter is the subject of a new exhibition in Muncie, Indiana.

Step Into Bob Ross’ Studio With This New, Interactive Experience

An exhibition in Indiana enables art lovers to explore the painter’s refurbished workshop

Martin Johnson Heade, Black-eared Fairy, ca. 1863-1864, oil on canvas, 12 1/4 x 10 in.

Smithsonian Voices

Scholars Are Finding New Clues to Understanding a Gorgeous Hummingbird Series of Artworks

The 19th-century artist Martin Johnson Heade abandoned his effort to paint his ‘Gems of Brazil,’ but why?

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear, 1889

New Research Links Vincent van Gogh’s Delirium to Alcohol Withdrawal

The paper is “unlikely to be the last word on [the] challenging question” of the artist’s mental health, says expert Martin Bailey

Those who missed the site-specific version of artist Koo Jeong A's density can now conjure it up at home, hovering over the couch or floating over their beds.

Innovation for Good

With Augmented Reality, You Can Now Superimpose Publicly Exhibited Artworks in Your Home

Art institutions are embracing AR during the Covid-19 pandemic—and making art more accessible in the process

In the ninth edition of the Renwick Invitational, artists Lauren Fensterstock, Timothy Horn (above: Gorgonia 12, 2016), Debora Moore and Rowland Ricketts offer viewers entrancing new perspectives on the natural world.

Nature and Artifice Collide at the 2020 Renwick Invitational

In an era of isolated anxiety, “Forces of Nature” offers room to breathe

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983

How Jean-Michel Basquiat and His Peers Made Graffiti Mainstream

A new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston explores how a network of young artists in 1980s New York City influenced hip-hop’s visual culture

Artist's rendering of The Starry Night, as seen in "The Lume" at Newfields

Step Into ‘The Starry Night’ and Other Vincent van Gogh Masterpieces

An upcoming installation at the Newfields museum in Indianapolis will immerse visitors in the Dutch artist’s paintings

Detail of Michelangelo's The Last Judgment fresco

This $22,000 Book Features Life-Size Photos of the Sistine Chapel’s Art

The pricey tome consists of three 25-pound, two-foot-tall volumes

For "Overboard," artist Andy Yoder created more than 200 Nike Air Jordan sneakers using garbage.

Artist Fashions Nike Air Jordan 5s From Trash

Sculptor Andy Yoder’s latest exhibition is a nod to the Great Shoe Spill of 1990 and the advances in ocean science that came from it

Jennifer Angus, "In the Midnight Garden," 2015.

Smithsonian Voices

Twelve Artworks and the Spooky Movies They Bring to Mind

Undead animals, creepy kitties, cyanotype cemeteries and other ghouls and creepy stuff to be found at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Jacob Lawrence, There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. —Washington, 26 December 1786, Panel 16, 1956, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954–56

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Jacob Lawrence Painting Spent 60 Years Hanging in NYC Apartment

A museum visitor realized she’d seen the missing work—part of the artist’s “Struggle” series—in her neighbor’s living room

Vanessa Bell, Self Portrait, c. 1952

Spotlighting 500 Years of Women in British Art, From Tudor Portraitists to the Bloomsbury Group

A new show at London’s Philip Mould & Company features works by Levina Teerlinc, Vanessa Bell and Clara Birnberg

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