Interview
Why Patti Smith Writes
In her latest book, the iconic writer and musician examines belief, friendship, mentorship, and what drives her to make art.
Latest
Performance
A New Opera Tells the Story of a Paleoart Pioneer Through His Granddaughter's Eyes
On Site Opera's Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt in the dinosaur hall of the American Museum of Natural History explores the paleoart of Charles Knight.
Books
A Cartoonist's Dazzling History of NYC
Julia Wertz's new black-and-white book of comics, Tenements, Towers & Trash, is a stirring ode to America’s most densely populated metropolis.
News
Art Movements
This week in art news: Theresa May sported a Frida Kahlo bracelet during her disastrous Conservative party conference speech, the highest level of the Colosseum was made accessible to tourists, and performance artist Deborah de Robertis was charged with exhibitionism after exposing herself in front
History
The Histories Erased by a Monument to the Los Angeles Aqueduct
A fountain dedicated to Frank Putnam Flint, the senator who devised the aqueduct supplying LA's water, makes no mention of the human cost of the project.
In Brief
Palmyra's Ancient Lion of Al-lāt, Smashed by ISIS, Is Restored and Back On View
The 2,000-year old statue, which for decades greeted visitors to the Palmyra museum before it was smashed by ISIS militants, has been restored in Damascus.
Art
Inspired by Indian Ragas, an Installation of Sound and Light Heightens the Senses
At the MELA Foundation Dream House, Jung Hee Choi's Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest XI seduces, disorients, and transforms.
Art
The Smithsonian Conserves Blood Pools and Charred Skeletons from 1940s Crime Dioramas
For the first time all 19 surviving Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are going on public view, with an exhibition opening in October at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery.
Art
With a Wall of Photos, Bernadette Mayer Evokes a Landscape of Memories
Bernadette Mayer's installation of a wall of images from 1971 is far too evocative of my own history for me to step back and see it “objectively.”
News
Artist Vandalizes Virtual Koons Sculpture, Questioning Silicon Valley's Fake Public Space
Is it truly public space if there's no opportunity to really disrupt things? Artist Sebastian Errazuriz doesn't seem to think so.
Art
A Project on the Arctic's Vanishing Ice Launches with an Olafur Eliasson Talk
The Arctic Imagination project is a collaboration between six international libraries that draws attention to the Arctic's disappearing ice.
History
What Planned Parenthood Looked Like in the 1940s
Following World War II, the birth control organization published illustrated pamphlets that provided authoritative guidance on how to best prepare to start a family.