Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Shattered Gender and Race Expectations in 19th-Century America
Kidnapped, beaten and left to die, Edmonia Lewis, a talented artist with both African and Native-American...
The Haitian Earthquake a Decade Later
This month marks the ten-year anniversary of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti. The...
Paired Images of Melting Glaciers and Flooding Wetlands Tell the Story of Global Climate Change
Understanding the regional impacts of a global problem like climate change can be challenging. Melting...
Using Art to Talk About the Holocaust in ‘The Evidence Room’
In 1996 David Irving, a British writer known in certain circles for his expertise on Nazi Germany, sued...
What David Levinthal’s Photos of Toys Reveal About American Myth and Memory
At first glance, David Levinthal ’s Iwo Jima appears to be a colorized version of the famed image t...
The Complicated History of Flamenco in Spain
During the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, an advertisement for the Bates textile company in the Pa...
Trove of Stunning Dance Photography Now Online
Modern dance impresario Alvin Ailey once asked photographer Jack Mitchell to shoot publicity images of...
How the Heroes of Africa Triumphed Against All Odds
He stands more than seven feet tall, with piercing eyes that seem almost alive, staring through the souls...
The Must-See Outdoor Art Installations of 2020
Last September, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum underwent a makeover of epic proportions when Kor...
How Japanese Artist Chiura Obata Came to Be an American Great
When Japanese artist Chiura Obata arrived in the United States in 1903, he brought an immigrant’s dr...
Recognition of Major Osage Leader and Warrior Opens a New Window Into History
In 1904, the priest of the Gentle Sky clan, Shonke Mon-thi^ , came to Washington, D.C. as a member of...
Lee Ufan’s Transformative Sculptures Are in Dialogue With the Spaces They Inhabit
When the Korean artist Lee Ufan was first commissioned to do a site-specific exhibition in the plaza...
A Photographer Captures Contrasts and Characters in Barcelona’s Streets Submit Now to Our 16th Annual Photo Contest
Josep Fabrega Agea has never forgotten the first time he set foot in a darkroom. At age nine, his father...
Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Is as Relevant Today as It Was in 1971
Motown wasn’t really known for its politically conscious music. Then came “What’s Going On.”Released...
How the Inca Discovered a Prized Pigment
In 1908, at a lab in Niagara Falls, New York, a metallurgist named Auguste Rossi invented a brilliant...
Illuminating the Shadowy Art of Armenian Puppet Theater
Behind a screen, puppets mounted on long, slim sticks dance and sway, twirling, backlit so that only...
The Topsy-Turvy Worldview of Georg Baselitz
Encountering the first upside down figure in the massive retrospective of German artist Georg Baselit...
These Soulful, Soothing Armenian Songs and Instrumentals Blend East With West
One of the first times that Ara Dinkjian performed on stage with his father was in New York City dur...
The Botanical Artist Who Translates Plant Science Into Beautiful Art
Alice Tangerini’s botanical illustrations all begin the same way: with a seemingly simple line drawi...
A New, Interactive Sculpture by Suchi Reddy Illuminates Our Hopes and Fears About the Future
At the first event of the Smithsonian’s new Arts and Industries Building—the 1881 inauguration ball...