From the elements of art to the great goddess Durga — Smarthistory is adding new content every week.
Prehistoric to contemporary
videos + essays
Ahilapalapa Rands, Lift Off
In an imaginative 3-minute film, Rands envisions the sacred Hawaiian summit Maunakea free of telescopes.
Pōhaku kuʻi ʻai, otherwise known as the poi pounder
The pōhaku kuʻi ʻai has become an important symbol of Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) life and culture.
Ola Ka Wai, Ola Ka Honua: sovereign flows on and off the wall
In its call to collective engagement, the mural opens space for the viewing public to be transformed in profound and lasting ways.
Fatu Feuʻu, Faʻaola Mo Taeao Conserve for Tomorrow
Feuʻu's work embodies the values of Faʻa Sāmoa (the Samoan way): reverence, compassion, and service.
Jaki-ed and weaving in the Marshall Islands
Jaki-ed mats are steeped in symbolic meaning, from the motifs to their manufacture.
Kapulani Landgraf, ʻAuʻa
Landgraf's works urge viewers to open their hearts to the histories of Hawaiian struggles and the efforts of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.
Nguzunguzu (canoe prow figurehead)
Adorning war canoes, nguzunguzu ensure the protection of ancestors and spirits for those undertaking treacherous ocean journeys.
ʻIolani Palace, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
King Kalākaua built ʻIolani Palace both as an authentically modern and traditional Hawaiian symbol of the prospering Hawaiian Kingdom.
Guagua’ (woven basket) and Chamoru weaving (mamfok)
Weaving has been an essential part of Chamoru life for millennia.
Pablo Picasso, Guernica
Paintings of this size had historically exalted war, but this one suggests that war is anything but heroic.
Alfred Conteh, Our Greatest Inheritance
Through portraiture, Conteh expresses the love and care between a father and his children.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
Dreamlike, imaginative, and inexplicable, Bosch's landscape confounds our expectations of Christian art of the Renaissance.
