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The Painter of the Right
Thomas Kinkade’s paintings show conservatives a world they have already won.
by
Sarah Jones
via
Dissent
on
July 16, 2025
partner
How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums
We take for granted the Titians and Botticellis that hang in galleries across the U.S., little aware how and why they were acquired.
by
Ashley Couto
via
JSTOR Daily
on
August 14, 2024
Hard Times
The radical art of the Depression years.
by
Rachel Himes
via
The Nation
on
November 27, 2023
partner
When Art Fuels Anger, Who Should Prevail?
Controversial artworks are flashpoints when artistic freedom and religious sensitivities collide.
via
Retro Report
on
November 9, 2023
Working-Class Artists Thrived in the New Deal Era
During the New Deal, mass left movements and government funding spawned a boomlet in working-class art. For once, art wasn’t just the province of the rich.
by
Liza Featherstone
via
Jacobin
on
October 16, 2023
Is the History of American Art a History of Failure?
Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.
by
Lynne Feeley
via
The Nation
on
July 31, 2023
Controversies Remind Us of How Complex John James Audubon Always Was
Discovering the naturalist and artist, and the darker trends within.
by
Christopher Irmscher
via
Library of America
on
August 17, 2022
Value and Its Sources: Slavery and the History of Art
Two new studies ask readers to think expansively about art’s involvement in a broader system of racial capitalism.
by
Caitlin Meehye Beach
via
Art In America
on
July 20, 2022
Freedom for Sale
In the 1950s and 1960s, a new generation of American artists began to think of advertising and commercial imagery as the new avant-garde.
by
Fintan O’Toole
via
New York Review of Books
on
July 1, 2021
Stars, Stripes and Dollars
Michael Prodger on the artists who make huge sums for painting the US flag.
by
Michael Prodger
via
The Critic
on
November 30, 2020
What Maketh a Man
How queer artist J.C. Leyendecker invented an iconography of twentieth-century American masculinity.
by
Tyler Malone
via
Lapham’s Quarterly
on
June 10, 2019
Original Catfluencer: How a Victorian Artist’s Feline Fixation Gave Us the Internet Cat
A story of how Louis Wain single handedly made cats adored by Victorian society through to modern day.
by
Lisa Hix
via
Collectors Weekly
on
May 7, 2019
The Beautiful, Genuine Artistry of Retro Video Games
Amidst so much politics and tribalism, they can provide portals into thoughtfully rendered alternate worlds.
by
Addison Del Mastro
via
The American Conservative
on
May 18, 2018
Can Art Museums Help Illuminate Early American Connections To Slavery?
New labels at the Worcester Art Museum are drawing attention to the connections between art, slavery, and wealth in early America.
by
Sarah E. Bond
via
Hyperallergic
on
April 25, 2018
Edith Magonigle and the Art War Relief
Called Art War Relief, members from a group of art societies formed a coalition under the auspices of the American Red Cross.
by
Tal Nadan
via
The New York Public Library
on
July 20, 2017
Dramatic Courtroom Drawings From Decades of American Trials
The Library of Congress' new exhibition is "Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom illustration."
by
Rebecca Onion
via
Slate
on
June 9, 2017
Dana Schutz’s ‘Open Casket’
Should white artists be allowed to depict black suffering?
by
Adam Shatz
via
LRB blog
on
March 24, 2017
“God Help American Science”: Engineering Theatre and Spectacle
When an event promises you will "hear the body broadcast its sounds," "see without light," and "see dancers float on air,” there’s bound to be disappointment.
by
W. Patrick McCray
via
W. Patrick McCray
on
September 7, 2016
A Brief History of the Great American Coloring Book
Where coloring books came from says something about what they are today.
by
Phil Edwards
via
Vox
on
September 2, 2015
When the Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art
In the modern Olympics’ early days, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze.
by
Joseph Stromberg
via
Smithsonian
on
July 25, 2012
No Laughing Matter
The evolution of the iconic smiley face and some of its not so happy connotations.
by
Jennifer Liese
via
Cabinet
on
May 7, 2005
Delicate and Dirty
Revisit the transformative moment in American culture through the lens of a new book about the 1960s New York avant-garde.
by
Ben Arthur
via
Los Angeles Review of Books
on
August 7, 2025
Homeland Security’s Genocidal Aesthetics
By posting paintings like “American Progress,” the DHS signals its white supremacist beliefs.
by
Ed Simon
via
Hyperallergic
on
August 1, 2025
Letters from Claude McKay
Correspondence about writing, travel, and friendship, from 1926 through 1929.
by
Claude McKay
via
The Paris Review
on
July 25, 2025
A Brief History of New York’s First Great Architectural Firm
On the eccentric, creative minds behind McKim, Meade and White.
by
Henry Wiencek
via
Literary Hub
on
July 22, 2025
Ben Shahn, the Lefty Artist Who Was Left Behind
Shahn was an American phenomenon, but a new retrospective suggests that we’ve come to prize his politics over his accomplishments.
by
Zachary Fine
via
The New Yorker
on
June 24, 2025
Rare Gift, Rare Grit
Ella Fitzgerald performed above the emotional fray.
by
Martha Bayles
via
The Hedgehog Review
on
May 23, 2025
When “The Subway Sun” Ruled NYC’s Underground
With its signature two-toned design and illustrations, the mock newspaper encouraged polite passenger etiquette and promoted local attractions.
by
Maya Pontone
via
Hyperallergic
on
May 15, 2025
The Raccoons Who Made Computer Magazine Ads Great
In the 1980s and 1990s, PC Connection built its brand on a campaign starring folksy small-town critters. They’ll still charm your socks off.
by
Harry McCracken
via
Technologizer
on
April 22, 2025
Transcending the Glass Ceiling
Five women who made important contributions to 19th-century American philosophy finally get their due.
by
Lydia Moland
via
The American Scholar
on
March 27, 2025
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