In the galleries: Striking Chinese art by a father-daughter collaboration
A father and daughter explore the nuances of Chinese art, an artist uses a poem to tie her paintings together, an exhibit of abstract paintings made on-site in Morocco, and an exhibit by women artists offers a range of distinctive works.
By Mark JenkinsIn 1898, the U.S. was entranced by empire. The legacy lingers.
A Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery exhibition explores the U.S. imperial ventures of 1898.
By Philip KennicottWatching over the watchers
They didn’t allow cameras in the Met in the 1950s. But sneaky photographer Jim Gagnon got lucky.
By Sebastian SmeeForget ‘Immersive Van Gogh.’ These exhibitions are the real thing.
America’s greatest museums — the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago — have mounted major van Gogh shows this spring.
By Sebastian SmeeClimate protesters indicted for smearing paint around case of Degas statue
Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture in the National Gallery of Art was covered in black and red paint following the April protest.
By Ellie SilvermanIn the galleries: Artists imagine red in images from brutal to banal
Another iteration of a gallery's "Focus Group" series, celebrating Japanese craftsmanship, an exhibit entices visitors to interact with objects and an artist explores Ethiopia's culture.
By Mark JenkinsSimone Leigh’s star turn in Venice returns stateside
Sculptor Simone Leigh dazzled at the Venice Biennale. Her works begin a national tour in Boston.
By Sebastian SmeeA great painter’s novel attempt to compete with literature
Edgar Degas’s early masterpiece "Interior" evoked a scene that was ahead of its time and beyond mere words.
By Sebastian Smee‘Ellsworth Kelly at 100’: Sensational in more ways than one
At Glenstone, Museum, a showcase of the late Ellsworth Kelly’s rich, lustrous shaped canvases that delight in the play of color.
By Kriston CappsIn the galleries: Collaborations woven with wisdom, mischief and generosity
Celebrating an artist's innovative collaborations, an ironic look at photographic "erasures," works of minimalism with bold color and a physician-artist takes on issues associated with childbirth.
By Mark JenkinsWhy do great artists paint food? Two critics hash it out.
The Washington Post's Philip Kennicott and Tom Sietsema looked at art that depicts food. It was a feast of signs and symbols.
By Philip Kennicott and Tom SietsemaThis enslaved man would become famous for a portrait — and his own art
Juan de Pareja was once enslaved to Diego Velazquez. After he gained his freedom, the Afro-Hispanic painter forged his own path.
By Philip KennicottThe woman who danced her way to abstraction
Sonia Delaunay-Terk wanted her abstract designs to merge with every aspect of life.
By Sebastian SmeeA watery mythological realm is given flesh at the Smithsonian
At the National Museum of African Art, Ayana V. Jackson’s “From the Deep” explores the fable of Drexciya, the aquatic homeland of descendants of enslaved women.
By Mark JenkinsTrump’s PAC funded Smithsonian portraits though individual donors were suggested, emails show
Emails reviewed by The Washington Post shed more details on a controversial move by the Smithsonian to accept $650,000 from a Trump PAC for his presidential portrait, though individual donors were apparently willing to step up.
By Amy B Wang and Mariana AlfaroTwo Rembrandt portraits, overlooked for nearly 200 years, are unearthed
The small, oval-shaped paintings were last seen in 1824, when they were privately purchased. "They're extraordinary," said the auctioneer who rediscovered them.
By Leo SandsIn the galleries: An inspiring annual student showcase of art and media
Graduating students participate in an annual arts festival, two artists' takes on landscapes, an exhibit focuses on the threatened blue crab and an interactive show keyed to music and video.
By Mark JenkinsA minimalist masterpiece with profound implications
This elegant work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres of two clocks, at the Wadsworth Atheneum, is a devastating meditation on love and death.
By Sebastian SmeeA fantastically fresh look at Georgia O’Keeffe
A new exhibition of O’Keeffe’s works on paper, at the Museum of Modern Art, reveals much about her creative processes.
By Sebastian Smee‘Afrofuturism’ navigates past, present and future of Black experience
Exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture examines history through the lens of the imagination.
By DeNeen L. Brown