Magdalena Abakanowicz's sculptures defied categorization, seeming like coats or cocoons that tempted you to crawl inside, or hairy living creatures suspended from the gallery ceiling.
Location: Tate
Culture writer and curator Ekow Eshun explores monuments and hidden histories through the work of Donald Locke and Hew Locke.
The Black Atlantic: Toppled Monuments and Hidden ...
culture writer and curator Ekow Eshun considers identity and nationhood through the work of Ellen Gallagher, Lubaina Himid, John Akomfrah, Chris Ofili and Fred Wilson.
The Black Atlantic: Identity and Nationhood
Culture writer and curator Ekow Eshun looks at the afterlives of slavery in contemporary artistic practice through the work of Kara Walker, Alberta Whittle, and Hew Locke.
The Black Atlantic: Afterlives of Slavery in ...
Culture writer and curator Ekow Eshun searches for a definition of the Black Atlantic, drawing on the works of JMW Turner, Ingrid Pollard, Isaac Julien and Yinka Shonibare.
The Black Atlantic: What is the Black ...
Based on magazines dating from the 1930s to the 1970s aimed at African-American audiences, Gallagher's witty and sophisticated interventions emphasize the complex construction of identity.
Ellen Galagher, DeLuxe
Singer Sargent’s evocative canvas turns a sweet, ordinary scene into a symphony of shapes and colors.
John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
Everyone wanted to have a look at the cast of characters Frith created—their variety provides the modern viewer with a fascinating glimpse into Victorian life.
William Powell Frith, Derby Day
Like a disaster movie, Turner’s painting transforms a natural catastrophe — with death a near-certainty — into entertainment.
J.M.W. Turner, Snow Storm
Sheltered by the sea, a study in place and feeling
Sheltered by the sea, Barbara Hepworth’s Pelagos
Describing is a key skill for art historians and for any museum visitor. Learn how.
Describing what you see: Sculpture, Henry Moore’s ...
What might Shonibare wish to communicate by bringing together these “African” textiles with Fragonard’s Rococo images?
Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)
Can color just be color, rather than representing something else? Step into Mondrian’s studio to find out.
TateShots: Piet Mondrian
In this tragic painting, Rossetti draws a comparison between himself and the medieval poet who shared his name.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
Serious Art or a jungle gym? Morris shows us that art can be experienced bodily, and Minimalism can be fun.
Robert Morris, Bodyspacemotionthings
Fancy a trip to Tate Britain? Visit the largest collection of work by Turner anywhere—no passport required.
J.M.W. Turner at Tate Britain
Fuseli’s fairies resist his era’s embrace of the rational in favor of the emotive and fantastic.
Henry Fuseli, Titania and Bottom
An epic showdown between man’s moralizing musculature and serpentine sin.
Sir Frederic Leighton, An Athlete Wrestling with ...
Freud’s nude isn’t the idealized, horizontal beauty of previous centuries, but a forthright, vertical one.
Lucian Freud, Standing by the Rags
Warhol used a quasi-mechanical process of silkscreen to reproduce Marilyn Monroe’s familiar face again and again.
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
