Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Contemporary Art

"Rabbit" sold at Christie's for a record-breaking $91.1 million

Jeff Koons’ ‘Rabbit’ Breaks the Auction Record for Most Expensive Work by Living Artist

The stainless steel sculpture sold for $91.1 million, surpassing the $90.2 million record set by David Hockney last November

Iris Scott, "Tiger Fire," 2019

Iris Scott, the World’s First Professional Finger-Painter, Launches NYC Show

While the artist isn’t the first to use finger painting in her work, she is the first to dedicate her career to the technique

The statue "Another time V," part of British sculptor Antony Gormley's exhibiton "Sight," is displayed on the Greek island of Delos, a UNESCO World Heritage protected ancient archaeological site.

The Ancient Greek Island of Delos Gets Its First Contemporary Art Installation

The esteemed British artist Antony Gormley has brought his signature “bodyforms” to the island

Max Peintner, "The Unbroken Attraction of Nature," 1970-71, handcolored by Klaus Littmann in 2018

Art Meets Science

Curator Will Plant 299 Trees in a Stadium to Make Statement on Climate Change

After the installation closes, the makeshift forest will be relocated to a public space, where it will remain accessible as a ‘living forest sculpture’

Almost all of Cannon’s large paintings (above: Three Ghost Figures, 1970), are portraits, often in electric shades of orange, purple and brilliant blue. Many vividly depict Native Americans as living, sometimes flawed individuals.

How T.C. Cannon and His Contemporaries Changed Native American Art

In the 1960s, a group of young art students upended tradition and vowed to show their real life instead

David Bradley, "Hopi Maidens," 2012

David Bradley Retrospective Captures Lasting Legacy of Contemporary Native Artist

More than 30 works from his nearly 40-year career are featured in the traveling show, now in Los Angeles

North/south section-perspective through the new gallery spaces at The Museum of Modern Art, looking east along Fifty-third Street.

MoMA to Close for Four Months During Major Renovations

The museum will reopen with an additional 40,000 square feet of gallery space and a new, more inclusive approach to displaying contemporary art

The museum is located in the tiny Swiss town of Susch

This New Art Museum Is Housed Inside of a Swiss Cave

The brainchild of Polish art collector Grażyna Kulczyk, Muzeum Susch is a gallery “with a disruptive outlook”

The artist installed 24 blocks of Greelandic ice outside of London's Tate Modern

Straight From a Greenland Fjord, London Installation Sends Dire Message on Climate Change

Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Ice Watch’ aims to bring viewers into direct confrontation with the devastation wrought by global warming

Prodger's 33-minute film features shots of seemingly mundane aspects of life, including these sneakers

Charlotte Prodger Claims This Year’s Turner Prize With Film Shot on iPhone

The Glasgow-based artist’s diaristic ‘Bridgit’ examines the fluidity of queer identity

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

"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

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”

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

Domed skylights offer tantalizing glimpses into the Amos Rex museum's sprawling underground galleries.

Helsinki’s New Subterranean Art Museum Opens Its Doors

The Amos Rex Museum is located beneath Lasipalatsi, a 1930s shopping center known as the ‘Glass Palace’

It’s often difficult to tell “where the art ends and the building begins”

Swiss Institute Reimagines Duchamp’s Readymades for the Modern World

The exhibition asks visitors to revisit the objects in their daily life that are often taken for granted

“Today, they started to demolish my studio ‘zuo you’ in Beijing with no precaution,” the long-time dissident wrote on Instagram

Authorities Raze Ai Weiwei’s Beijing Studio

The contemporary art giant is known for his caustic criticism of the Chinese government

Adieu (Remix) by Georg Baselitz, 2006

The Topsy-Turvy Worldview of Georg Baselitz

Upside-down paintings are part of a 60-year survey of the German painter and sculptor, who makes a return to the Hirshhorn

A light installation by visual artist Edward Raffel titled "Rafter Dance" from the 2017 Rooms to Let: CLE event.

Vibrant Art Installations Infuse New Life into Abandoned Houses in This Cleveland Neighborhood

Hit hard by the recession, Slavic Village is slowly making a comeback with the help of artists and neighborhood groups

This Colorful Exhibition Was Made for Instagram

Artist CJ Hendry’s latest house-like installation assigned each room a distinct color

Page 11 of 13