Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Sculpture

Eagles are enduring symbols in Aztec lore.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth 600-Year-Old Golden Eagle Sculpture at Aztec Temple

The artwork is the largest bas-relief engraving found at the Templo Mayor to date

Local commissioners approved a resolution calling for the memorial's creation on January 26.

Memorial to Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Will Replace Confederate Monument in Georgia

A tribute to the congressman and activist will stand in a DeKalb County square once occupied by a Confederate obelisk

Researchers restored the mask before reburying it to protect against looters and erosion.

Cool Finds

Human-Sized Maya Mask Found in Mexico

The stucco sculpture—dated to between 300 B.C. and 250 A.D.—probably depicts a deity or elite member of society

Last June, protesters threw a statue of British slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol Harbor. A salvage team recovered the sculpture the following day.

Proposed Legislation Seeks to ‘Protect’ the U.K.’s Controversial Monuments

If passed, the new measure would make it more difficult for local councils to remove statues of polarizing historical figures

A rendering of by Hank Willis Thomas' The Embrace, a public memorial set to be unveiled in the Boston Commons in October 2022

Monument to Coretta Scott and MLK Is Coming to Boston, City Where They Met

Hank Willis Thomas’ sculpture of intertwined arms will memorialize the civil rights leaders and their fight for racial equality

On New Year's Day, farmers in Mexico uncovered a sculpture dated to between roughly 1450 and 1521 A.D.

Cool Finds

Farmers Discover Rare Statue of Pre-Hispanic Woman in Mexican Citrus Grove

The sculpture may depict an elite ruler or a fusion of a goddess and a female leader

Activists toppled and defaced Edward Valentine's statue of Jefferson Davis during Black Lives Matter protests in Richmond last summer.

Why a Virginia Museum Wants to Display a Defaced Sculpture of Jefferson Davis

“Actually bringing that statue back to the spot where it was created has a unique power to it,” says the Valentine’s director

The sculpture has stood in Boston's Park Square since 1879.

Boston Removes Controversial Statue of Lincoln With Kneeling Freed Man

The sculpture, installed in 1879, is based on one still standing in Washington, D.C.

As of Monday morning, a statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee no longer stands in the U.S. Capitol's Crypt.

Statue of Civil Rights Activist Barbara Rose Johns Will Replace U.S. Capitol’s Likeness of Robert E. Lee

Johns, whose efforts helped desegregate public schools, is set to represent Virginia in place of the Confederate general

This summer, activists in Richmond transformed a monument to Robert E. Lee (right) into a work of protest art (left).

Virginia Museum Will Lead Efforts to Reimagine Richmond Avenue Once Lined With Confederate Monuments

Governor Ralph Northam’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year earmarks $11 million for the project

While many people have walked by the red door on Chicago's Wells Street, very few—likely less than one or two thousand—have ever gotten a chance to see what’s behind it.

Virtual Travel

A New Virtual Tour Takes Us Inside Architect Edgar Miller’s Masterwork

Seen by few until now, Glasner Studio in Chicago’s Old Town is a rich mix of stained glass windows, wood carvings, tilework and bas-reliefs

The books Smithsonian experts recommend this year are, in a word, relevant.

Smithsonian Scholars Pick Their Favorite Books of 2020

This wide-ranging list offers much-needed context for the issues at the forefront of the national conversation

Local officials approved plans to install the statue on St. Peter's Hill in Grantham.

Why a Planned Statue of Britain’s ‘Iron Lady,’ Margaret Thatcher, Is So Polarizing

Set to be installed in the prime minister’s hometown of Grantham next year, the ten-foot-tall work has both supporters and detractors

On November 2, a metro train shot through a stop block at the De Akkers metro station outside of Rotterdam but narrowly missed catastrophe.

In Fluke Accident, Sculpture of Whale Tails Saves Train From 33-Foot Plunge

Aptly named “Saved by the Whale’s Tale,” the art installation prevented a potentially deadly accident in the Netherlands

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

The National Native American Veterans Memorial, designed by Cheyenne and Arapaho artist Harvey Pratt, features a steel circle balanced on a carved drum.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the New Memorial to Native American Veterans

Located in front of the National Museum of the American Indian, the sculpture reminds us of the true burden of freedom

Simone Leigh, an American sculptor, will represent the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

Meet the First Black Woman to Represent the U.S. at the Art World’s Biggest Fair

Simone Leigh, whose large-scale ceramics explore black female subjectivity, will exhibit her work at the 2022 Venice Biennale

The statue, which stands across from the New York County Criminal Courthouse, inverts the myth of Perseus slaying Medusa.

Why a New Statue of Medusa Is So Controversial

The gorgon, seen holding Perseus’ severed head, stands across from the court where Harvey Weinstein was tried

Jerzy Kalina's Poisoned Well is on view at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Why a New Sculpture of Pope John Paul II Is So Controversial

Artist Jerzy Kalina says his “strongman” is a call to resist “multiplying forms of red revolution”

The museum's CEO emeritus, John Guess Jr., stands in front of the newly installed Spirit of the Confederacy sculpture.

Why the Houston Museum of African American Culture Is Displaying a Confederate Statue

The institution describes the move, which arrives amid a reckoning on the U.S.’ history of systemic racism, as “part of healing”

Page 15 of 28