Smithsonian Latino Gallery Quietly Closes for Nine Months

Aug 29, 2025

The Molina Family Latino Gallery at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which has served as the home of the nascent Latino museum, will stay closed until April 2026. (all images courtesy Felipe Galindo) On Friday morning, August 22, illustrator Felipe...

Adrift in Betye Saar’s Crepuscular Dreamscape

Aug 29, 2025

SAN MARINO, Calif. — Standing in the gallery of Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight, you are bathed in cobalt blue light. The buzz of neon lights drones in the background. It’s hard to say if the temperature has truly dropped, or if it’s psychosomatic, that the...

World’s Largest Van Gogh Collection Faces Uncertain Future

Aug 29, 2025

Since 1973, Vincent van Gogh masterpieces including his beloved sunflowers, wistful wheatfields, and self-portraits have been housed in Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. The institution was established via a historic 1962 agreement between the painter’s nephew and the...

Required Reading

Aug 29, 2025

‣ Design is a minefield of ethical dilemmas, incentivizing companies to work with exploitative clients and making it difficult for employees to say no. Elizabeth Goodspeed spoke with a few designers, writing in It’s Nice That: Questions about client ethics...

Seeing New Mexico Through the Looking Glass

Aug 29, 2025

SANTA FE — In 1998, science fiction writer Ted Chiang published “Story of Your Life,” in which aliens come to Earth in “looking glasses,” mirrored spaceships that act as communication devices. The central character, linguist Dr. Louise Banks, is tasked with...

Edward Burra’s Satirical Surrealism

Aug 29, 2025

LONDON — Edwards Burra was a chronically ill English painter, suffering from debilitating arthritis and asthma throughout much of his life. Hailing from the upper classes of southern England, with regularized, side-parted, tamped-down hair, he spent much of his life...