art

Kara Walker Disrupts the Visual History of the Civil War in New Exhibition

by Allison Robinson and Ksenia M. Soboleva

The artist Kara Walker's 2005 series of prints merged the historical illustrations that shaped Americans' understanding of the Civil War in its immediate aftermath and in the 1890s with her original subversive take on the tradition of silhouette art to highlight the erasure of Black experiences of war. Two curators are putting Walker's work in context in a new exhibition.

Glenda Gilmore's Bio Shows Artist Romare Bearden Reckoning with the South

"Gilmore sets a timeline, critiques some striking artworks, and leaves the reader wondering why hardly anyone writes about art this succinctly."

After COVID Delay, Controversial Philip Guston Exhibit Opens in Boston

Guston's blunt imagery, including Ku Klux Klan figures, arguably interrogates his complicity as a white artist in ongoing racism. Is it offensive to contemporary museum audiences? 

The Issue of Visibility in Latino Art

by Ricardo Romo

"The moment is ripe for bringing Latino art to public spaces and public museums. The number of talented Latino artists has multiplied over the past two decades, and the opportunity to make their work visible is now."

The Enlightenment Precursor of the Social Media "Wife Guy"

by Meghan Roberts

The "wife guy" who self-servingly projects an image of domestic bliss and romantic devotion is not just a creation of the social media age. 

New Exhibit Looks to Art as a Tool of Resistance to Anti-Black Violence

As Leslie Harris explains, the exhibition at Northwestern University incorporates 60 works in various media that show how Black art has been an instrument for communicating history. 

A Texas-Born Princess and Former Scandalous Washington Wife May Lose Roman Villa in Epic Inheritance Fight

Princess Rita Boncompagni-Ludovisi, born Rita Carpenter, the former wife of Congressman John Jenrette, has worked for 19 years to make Rome's Villa Aurora accessible to scholars. 

Acquiring Eyes: The Unlikely Cross-Cultural Partnership Behind the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

by Charles Dellheim

The world of American art collecting was transformed by the unlikely partnership of the Boston Brahmin Isabella Stewart Gardner and the ambitious Russian Jewish immigrant Bernhard Berenson.

The Stories of Those Who Lost Decades in the Closet

"On a quiet block in downtown Brooklyn, a new photography exhibit — housed inside a senior living center — invites viewers to consider an essential question: How do we measure the emotional and social costs of discrimination?"

Illuminating the Legacy of Slavery at a New York Museum

Artist Reggie Black is projecting a message about the history of slavery in New York City on the façade of the ​Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Manhattan, where six people were enslaved.

Trump: Superhero or Superspreader?

by Meredith Martin, Gillian Weiss and Bonnie Siegler

Inspired by the Sun King’s detractors, the White House Gift Shop’s self-parodying statements, and Trump’s own Superman fantasies, we offer a medal honoring the Super Spreader.

In His Own Words: Jacob Lawrence at the Met and MoMA

The artist Jacob Lawrence died in 2000; he spent a day in New York museums with Times art critic Michael Kimmelman four years before, discussing art and his creative process. 

She Was More Than Just the ‘Most Beautiful Suffragist’

A contemporary artist is recreating the final campaign of suffrage activist Inez Milholland through historical ephemera, primary documents, and photographic reenactments. 

African Americans Have Long Defied White Supremacy And Celebrated Black Culture In Public Spaces

by Shannon M. Smith

Long before Confederate monuments occupied city squares, African Americans used those same public spaces to celebrate their history. But those African American memorial cultures have often been overshadowed by Confederate monuments that dominate public space and set in stone a white supremacist story of the past.

Portraits that Honor the Men Who Participated in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike

Carl Juste’s double portrait of father and son presents an extraordinarily intimate experience on the usually busy public plaza surrounding the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami.

Christo, Famous For His Monumental Works Of Art, Dies At 84

Christo's works played off of their environment in cities around the world.

A New Public Art Installation in Alexandria Confronts the City’s Ties to the Slave Trade

Brooklyn-based artist Olalekan Jeyifous examines an oft-overlooked aspect of the Virginia port community’s history.

This is how Bad Things are for Museums: They Now Have a Green Light to Sell Off Their Art

The Association of Art Museum Directors has relaxed its guidelines against selling works of art for operating funds. Now, the notion of selling off a Claude Monet or two to plug a budgetary hole—or to fend off a total financial meltdown—is suddenly something to contemplate.

She Tracked Nazi-Looted Art. She Quit When No One Returned It.

A researcher stopped working for a German museum after she says she lost faith in its commitment to return works with tainted provenances.

How Somalis Use Theatre to Rebuild Culturally

by Farah M. Omer

Modern Somali theatre rose to prominence in the 1960s, the period following the independence and the subsequent unification of Somaliland and Somalia. By the 1970s, there were multiple shows a night in any given city and the average Somali adult was considered a regular theatre goer regardless of socioeconomic status.