Art & Design

Arts

Nina McLemore's Clothes Are A 'Weapon' Of Powerful Women

5:08pm August 27, 2016

Nina McLemore designs clothes for powerful women: Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Janet Yellen, Elena Kagan and others. She talks about how fashion can help women stand out in political office.

The Chichu Art Museum, designed by celebrated Japanese architect Tadao Anda, is built mostly underground. Open courtyards and skylights bring in natural light. The island is internationally known for its works of modern art and architecture.

How Art Transformed A Remote Japanese Island

9:00am August 27, 2016

by Ina Jaffe

The population of Naoshima has fallen to 3,000. But this year, its art will attract 800,000 tourists from around the world. "The level of our sophistication has gone up considerably," says a resident.

Hilton Pray, 82, holds one of thousands of his photographs that were damaged after an estimated 4-feet of water filled his home in Denham Springs, La.

After Louisiana Floods, A Photographer Finds Resilience

5:29pm August 26, 2016

by Ari Shapiro

Photographer Collin Richie and three colleagues have been shooting portraits of people who were impacted by the floods in Louisiana. The images focus on what people were able to save.

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Gabriel Barcia-Colombo on the TED stage.

Arts

Can Slow-Moving Art Disrupt Our Hectic Routines?

8:49am August 26, 2016

by NPR/TED Staff

Early in his career, video artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo noticed the way people breeze past works of art. He describes how his deliberate, slow-moving installations encourage people to stop and think.

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Members of the National Museum Building Committee stand in an unfinished doorway of the U.S. National Museum, now the Arts and Industries Building, in 1880. (From left: Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Peter Parker, Spencer Fullert

Arts

Belle Of The Mall: Saving Smithsonian's Jewel-Like Arts And Industries Building

3:09pm August 25, 2016

by Elizabeth Blair

With its spires, rotunda and colorful facade, the Arts and Industries Building is a festive relief compared with its neighbors. But restoring the Smithsonian's first museum hasn't been easy.

Models wear creations by Rykiel during Paris Fashion Week in 2004.

Arts

Sonia Rykiel, Designer Known As The 'Queen Of Knitwear,' Dies

2:04pm August 25, 2016

by Elizabeth Blair

The famously redheaded Rykiel embodied the intellectual chic and feminism of Paris in the late 1960s. With vibrant stripes or simple black, her clothes hugged a woman's body.

Arts

Bonjour, Barbie! An American Icon Packs Her Heels And Heads To France

10:50am August 25, 2016

by Susan Stamberg

Some 700 Barbie dolls are visiting Paris this summer. They span almost six decades of pretty, plastic history, including Malibu Barbie, astronaut Barbie, and, of course, Royal Canadian Mountie Barbie.

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Former corrections officer Robert Fletcher says he bought this painting from artist Peter Doig in 1976.

Artist Peter Doig Says He Didn't Paint This, And A Judge Agrees

6:15pm August 23, 2016

by Andrew Limbong

A retired corrections officer says he bought the painting from Doig in 1976, but Doig (now a famous artist) says that wasn't him. So the retiree lawyered up and went to court.

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A wealthy American living in Paris, Romaine Brooks had the freedom to paint whatever and however she wanted. Don't let her sober, 1923 Self-Portrait fool you — Smithsonian curator Virginia Mecklenburg says in the 1910s and 1920s, Brooks and her circle o

Arts

Painter Romaine Brooks Challenged Conventions In Shades Of Gray

11:36am August 17, 2016

by Susan Stamberg

A wealthy American living in Paris, Brooks had the freedom to paint whatever and however she wanted. In a subtle but powerful palette, she depicted androgynous women and melancholy nudes.

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Opera binocs. Food by Chef John N. Novi.

At This Experimental Culinary Event, The Cutlery Is High Art

1:21pm August 16, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Three Michelin-star chefs will cook for 60 guests in a one-night voyage of victuals in California. We talked to an artist creating the virtuoso flatware for the event.