Exhibitions

The exhibition uses the Seattle Art Museum's double-height galleries to showcase works like the 22-foot-tall sculpture Red Curly Tail  (1970).

Expansive Alexander Calder Exhibition Opens in Seattle

"Calder: In Motion" celebrates the iconic artist’s innovative mobiles, sculptures and other works

This year's titles include Daughter of the Dragon, Whalefall and Witness.

Smithsonian Scholars Recommend Their Favorite Books of 2023

Curators and staffers satisfied their endless curiosity with novels, short stories, biographies, art collections and journalistic reporting

Persimmons will hang at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum for a brief three weeks.

'Zen Mona Lisa' Travels to the United States for the Very First Time

Titled "Six Persimmons," the famous 13th-century work hasn't left Japan for hundreds of years

The sarcophagus of Ramses II is a major attraction in a new exhibition, as it has rarely been shown publicly outside of Egypt.

Why Egyptomania Is Taking Over Australia

A series of exhibitions in the country spotlight the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt for modern audiences

A display of low-value coins from Greece helps illustrate how money became part of ordinary peoples' everyday lives during economic transformation in medieval Europe.

How Money Transformed Medieval Europe

A new exhibition explores the questions raised by economic revolution—and how familiar those questions remain today

“The World Made Wondrous: The Dutch Collector’s Cabinet and the Politics of Possession” takes a 17th-century Dutch cabinet as its starting point, tracing the threads of Dutch colonization through each object on view.

How Cabinets of Curiosities Laid the Foundation for Modern Museums

An exhibition at LACMA examines the legacy of Dutch colonization through a fictive 17th-century collector's room of wonders

A view of the exhibition galleries of "On the Reverse" at the Prado Museum

Madrid's Prado Museum Shows What’s Behind Famous Paintings—Literally

The new exhibition “On the Reverse” encourages visitors to think of paintings as three-dimensional objects by showing their back sides

Before it was stolen, the toilet had been installed in a bathroom at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England.

Four Men Charged With 2019 Theft of $6 Million Gold Toilet

Titled "America," the infamous 18-karat loo was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan

David Hockney paints the portrait of Harry Styles that is currently on display in the exhibition.

David Hockney Show Opens in London—and Features a New Portrait of Harry Styles

"David Hockney: Drawing from Life" returns to the National Portrait Gallery after the pandemic shut it down three years ago

Julie Packard by Hope Gangloff is on view at the National Portrait Gallery in the new show, "Forces of Nature: Voices That Shaped Environmentalism."

Meet the Steely Gaze of Environmentalism

A new show at the National Portrait Gallery focuses on the defenders of Mother Earth over the past 150 years

Elton John and David Furnish pictured at home in their art gallery in Windsor, England, in 2019

See Hundreds of Photographs From Elton John and David Furnish's Private Collection

Never-before-seen images of celebrities, performers and important moments in history are going on display in London

The charcoal drawings in a secret room under the Medici Chapels Museum in Florence

Did Michelangelo Sketch These Drawings in a Secret Room Below a Florence Chapel?

For the first time, visitors will get to see the intricate sketches that some scholars attribute to the artist

Artist Dan Miller works at Creative Growth Art Center, which is partnering with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Acquires More Than 100 Works by Artists With Disabilities

The purchase is one of the largest acquisitions of its kind by any museum in the United States

Preparation for Bobby Baker's 1976 An Edible Family in a Mobile Home, which is being restaged by Tate Britain next month

You Can Eat These Sculptures at Tate Britain

"An Edible Family in a Mobile Home" features life-size figures sculpted from cookies and cake

John Akomfrah at his London studio, 2016

Artist John Akomfrah Is Having a Moment

The works of the recently knighted filmmaker address contemporary issues in two different Smithsonian museums

Frederick Douglass, Unidentified Artist, Sixth-plate daguerreotype c. 1841

Why We Need to Understand Frederick Douglass Now More Than Ever

The great orator was a branding genius, and a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery showcases his motivations

In an exhibition on ancient Egyptian-inspired fashion at the Cleveland Museum of Art, a relief depicts the wife of Amenhotep wearing a kalasiris, or long linen dress, juxtaposed with a white jersey gown designed by Karl Lagerfeld in 2019.

Was Ancient Egypt's Most Lasting Influence in the Field of Fashion?

An exhibition in Cleveland showcases millennia-old designs and the more modern creations they inspired

Pamela Singh's Chipko Tree Huggers of the Himalayas #4, 1994

London Exhibition Explores the Link Between Gender and Ecology

"Re/Sisters," now open at the Barbican Art Gallery, features the works of nearly 50 women and nonbinary artists

Pikachu takes van Gogh's place in this recreation of Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (1887)

Pokémon Takes Over the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

The franchise and the 19th-century Dutch master both took inspiration from Japanese art

Nam June Paik’s 1995 Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii—a pulsing map of the 50 states lined with 575 feet of multicolored neon tubing, with each state defined by flickering video from 336 televisions and 50 DVD players—is one of the museum’s most popular pieces.

With Renovated Galleries, the Smithsonian Expands Its Approach to Contemporary American Art

The historic hall in the American Art Museum where President Abraham Lincoln held his second inaugural ball welcomes more diverse voices and visions

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