During the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal government sponsored a variety of art projects to provide work for unemployed artists. This remarkable effort is presented here with a unique selection of artworks, documents, and photographs provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Within this collection, users may view...

In September 2012, Creative Time, in collaboration with scientists at MIT, launched artwork by Trevor Paglen 24,000 miles into space, where it orbits to this day aboard a communications satellite. This is just one of the hundreds of far-out projects this NYC artists' collective has commissioned in the past 40 years. (Another example: the twin beams of light commemorating the twin towers after...

George Catlin is considered one of the foremost chroniclers of the Native American experience in the early 19th century, and his dramatic and honest paintings form the main part of this virtual exhibit produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1830s and 1840s, Catlin journeyed throughout the American West documenting the transformation of different Native American groups,...

According to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) website, southern antiques were ignored and dismissed by collectors and scholars in the first half of the 20th century. However, in 1965, a museum dedicated to "the preservation, scholarship, and connoisseurship of southern decorative arts and material culture" opened in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, curated by a pioneering mother...

This exhibition preview from the Library of Congress highlights the work of Roger L. Stevens, one of America's foremost theatrical producers and impresarios of the 20th century. During his a career that lasted over fifty years, Mr. Stevens backed his first Broadway show in 1949 and soon became a moving force in American and British theater, eventually presenting over 100 plays and musicals in...

This exhibition from the Seattle Art Museum explores artists' urge to "shoot, rip, tear, burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher in a new way of thinking." An animated feature at the site showcases works, curator's commentary, and quotes from five artists: Jasper Johns, Niki De Saint-Phalle, Ushio Shinohara, Lucio Fontana, and Yoko Ono. Ono's piece, Painting to Hammer a...