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Art & Design NPR explores the visual arts including design, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Interviews, commentary, and audio. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Art & Design

Monday

History

Depression-Era Photos Make A Mark In American Photography

A Yale University project has organized and mapped photographs taken for the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information from 1935 to 1946. Now there's an online tool to explore them.

Depression-Era Photos Make A Mark In American Photography

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Wednesday

Mother, Empress, Virgin, Faith: 'Picturing Mary' And Her Many Meanings

Curator Timothy Verdon says "Mary is unexpectedly fashionable" in Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child, painted in the 1460s. Provincia di Firenze, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence/National Museum of Women in the Arts hide caption

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Provincia di Firenze, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence/National Museum of Women in the Arts

Mother, Empress, Virgin, Faith: 'Picturing Mary' And Her Many Meanings

This Christmas, images of Mary created over five centuries glow on the walls of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Curator Kathryn Wat says that, to her, Mary represents bravery and strength.

Mother, Empress, Virgin, Faith: 'Picturing Mary' And Her Many Meanings

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Sunday

Photography

Look At This: Seeing The Story Inside A Photo

The NPR Visuals team has published a new project called A Photo I Love. Editor Kainaz Amaria tells NPR's Rachel Martin about the first beloved image, from a book, Gangsters and Grifters.

Look At This: Seeing The Story Inside A Photo

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Friday

'Mr. Turner' Is A Snuffling, Growling Work Of Art

Timothy Spall finds beauty in the unlikeliest places as painter J.M.W. Turner. Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

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Sony Pictures Classics

Review

Movie Reviews

'Mr. Turner' Is A Snuffling, Growling Work Of Art

Critic Bob Mondello says Mike Leigh's earthy new biopic about the famed British painter J.M.W Turner shows viewers the incandescent beauty of the world as Turner himself must have seen it.

'Mr. Turner' Is A Snuffling, Growling Work Of Art

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Tuesday

Painting Or Photograph? With Richard Estes, It's Hard To Tell

Richard Estes, Jone's Diner, 1979, oil on canvas. (Private collection.) Click here for a closer look. Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum hide caption

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Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum

Fine Art

Painting Or Photograph? With Richard Estes, It's Hard To Tell

The American artist starts by taking dozens of photos of the same thing. Then he paints it, staying as faithful to photos as he can. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has an exhibition of his work.

Painting Or Photograph? With Richard Estes, It's Hard To Tell

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Sunday

'#Blackmendream': Showcasing A Different Side Of Black Manhood

A still from the art film #Blackmendream. The film features nine men, turned away from the camera and talking about their hopes and fears. Courtesy artist hide caption

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Courtesy artist

Fine Art

'#Blackmendream': Showcasing A Different Side Of Black Manhood

In Shikeith Cathey's short film, faceless strangers answer questions like "What makes you happy?" and "Do you cry?" The artist says, "These questions, as simple as they are ... they aren't discussed."

'#Blackmendream': Showcasing A Different Side Of Black Manhood

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Friday

Please Touch! Cooper Hewitt Creates A Museum For The Internet Age

Interactive touch screens at the newly redesigned Cooper Hewitt museum let visitors sort through the catalog and create their own designs. Cooper Hewitt hide caption

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Cooper Hewitt

All Tech Considered

Please Touch! Cooper Hewitt Creates A Museum For The Internet Age

The design museum is housed in a historic building, but it has been remade into one of the country's most technologically advanced museums. Officials hope it attracts younger visitors — and donors.

Please Touch! Cooper Hewitt Creates A Museum For The Internet Age

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Friday

A Miami School Goes From Blank Canvas To Mural-Covered

Leza One paints a mural on a wall of Jose de Diego Middle School in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. It's a project that coincides with the citywide Art Basel fair. Greg Allen/NPR hide caption

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Greg Allen/NPR

National

A Miami School Goes From Blank Canvas To Mural-Covered

Jose de Diego Middle School has large expanses of facade that are almost begging for decoration. To raise funds for arts education at the school, artists are helping transform its walls with paint.

A Miami School Goes From Blank Canvas To Mural-Covered

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Wednesday

How Private Collectors Helped Make Miami An Art Destination

Anselm Kiefer's Sprache der Vogel belongs to one of Miami's best-known private collections. Collection Martin Z. Margulies hide caption

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Collection Martin Z. Margulies

Fine Art

How Private Collectors Helped Make Miami An Art Destination

Every December, tens of thousands of visitors descend on Miami. But they aren't there for the beaches; they're there for Art Basel, a giant art fair that private collectors helped lure to the city.

How Private Collectors Helped Make Miami An Art Destination

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Friday

'New Yorker' Cover Shows A Divided St. Louis

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Bob Staake, illustrator of the controversial cover of The New Yorker, which depicts the St. Louis skyline divided in half by the colors black and white.

'New Yorker' Cover Shows A Divided St. Louis

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Gold-Plated Gowns And 8-inch Pumps: The Stuff That Made Starlets Shimmer

Mae West is said to have worn these super platform shoes both on screen and off. Brian Sanderson/Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston hide caption

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Brian Sanderson/Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gold-Plated Gowns And 8-inch Pumps: The Stuff That Made Starlets Shimmer

Actress Mae West was petite, but on screen — thanks to a pair of platform shoes — she looked larger than life. A show in Boston examines the fashion and jewelry of Hollywood's golden age.

Gold-Plated Gowns And 8-inch Pumps: The Stuff That Made Starlets Shimmer

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Tuesday

The American Origins Of The Not-So-Traditional Celtic Knot Tattoo

Not-so-authentic Irish: a Celtic knot tattoo. Tattoo parlors in Ireland say almost all the customers requesting this are American. Christa Burns/Flickr hide caption

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Christa Burns/Flickr

Parallels

The American Origins Of The Not-So-Traditional Celtic Knot Tattoo

The Celtic knot — a pattern of interlocking lines — is centuries old, carved into ancient stones all over Ireland. But that tattoo on your biceps? Like the fortune cookie, American born and bred.

The American Origins Of The Not-So-Traditional Celtic Knot Tattoo

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Saturday

Lost — Then Found — Along The Border, Objects Become Art

Galindo's "zapatello" uses gears and cranks to hit a shoe and glove on a drum made of a tire and rawhide. Richard Misrach/Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles hide caption

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Richard Misrach/Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles

National

Lost — Then Found — Along The Border, Objects Become Art

A photographer's journey along the U.S.-Mexico border turned up dramatic images of lost possessions. Those found items were later made into instruments that sound just like that desolate landscape.

Lost — Then Found — Along The Border, Objects Become Art

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Sunday

For One Artist, Colorblindness Opened Up A World Of Black And White

Milton's Mary's Turn also features Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas paintings hanging on the wall. Click here for a closer look. Courtesy of Peter Milton hide caption

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Courtesy of Peter Milton

Color Decoded: Stories That Span The Spectrum

For One Artist, Colorblindness Opened Up A World Of Black And White

Vermont Public

After his diagnosis, Peter Milton wasn't about to abandon art; but he did feel he had to abandon color. Today he says he finds black and white to be "fully more elegant than color."

For One Artist, Colorblindness Opened Up A World Of Black And White

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