Art & Design

Arts
Economy

Post Recession, Architects Return To The Drawing Board

5:39am June 11, 2013

by Wendy Kaufman

While some jobs are coming back in this economy, the market for many architects remains tough. There were nearly 220,000 people working in the field in 2008. Today, more than 25 percent of those jobs are gone.

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Arts

Inside The Cel: Behind The Scenes With Animators

2:51pm June 06, 2013

The highly anticipated animated films Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Turbo hit theaters this summer. From cel technology to full-length, computer-animated, celebrity-studded movies, animation has come a long way.

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Lynda Barry is an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Arts

Cartoonist Lynda Barry Helps College Students Tap Innate Creativity

11:50am May 30, 2013

by NPR Staff

Like most of her work, cartoonist Lynda Barry's course at the University of Wisconsin is unorthodox: No artistic skill is required. In class, and in her own work, the cartoonist aims to strip away the stiffness of adulthood and plug people into their innate creativity.

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NPR's Andrea Hsu paid $75 for her midcentury modern table and chairs, shown here in a 1963 Drexel Declaration catalog. She quickly realized it was a steal.

Arts

Midcentury Furniture + Grandkid Nostalgia = Modern Trend

7:18pm May 29, 2013

by Andrea Hsu

It first showed up in the 1950s and '60s — think low-slung sofas, egg-shaped chairs and the set of Mad Men. Today, midcentury modern furniture is "blazing hot," as one dealer puts it. One explanation is that people often like what their grandparents liked.

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When illustrator Ralph Steadman accepted an assignment with writer Hunter S. Thompson at the Kentucky Derby, he never imagined the weekend that would ensue. Here, Steadman depicts the race's winner, a colt named Dust Commander.

A 'Decadent And Depraved' Derby With Hunter S. Thompson

6:27pm May 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

Illustrator Ralph Steadman had never heard of Hunter S. Thompson before he flew to Churchill Downs on assignment to cover the Kentucky Derby. But after an unforgettable, booze-ridden weekend with the writer, Steadman's life was never the same.

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Arts

Presidential Libraries Inspire Design Of George W. Bush Center

2:46am April 26, 2013

On Thursday, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is dedicated on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. David Greene talks to former first lady Laura Bush about the library and life after the White House.

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A portrait is projected on the walls of a building as part of a project promoting art through re-evaluating urban spaces and buildings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Nov. 22.

In Gritty Sao Paulo, Artists Take To The Streets

9:52pm April 22, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Brazil's largest city is more about business than art. But a new crop of creators — who work in media as different as crochet, graffiti and poetry — is trying to change that by sprucing up public spaces.

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The program is held at the Charles R. Drew Elementary School.

In D.C., Art Program Turns Boys' Lives Into 'Masterpieces'

10:26pm April 18, 2013

by Elizabeth Blair

In Washington's Ward 7, where only 33 percent of students graduate from high school, a program called Life Pieces to Masterpieces is sending nearly 100 percent of its graduates to college or post-secondary education.

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In director Gilles Bourdos' biopic Renoir, Christa Theret plays Andree Heuschling, who served as a muse for both the aging Impressionist master and his young filmmaker son.

Arts

Painting 'Renoir' In Finely Detailed Strokes

10:59am April 11, 2013

by Susan Stamberg

The biopic Renoir plots the final years of the impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and creating the film's sumptuous imagery took a special eye for detail. NPR's Susan Stamberg explores the inspirations behind the film.

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Bosom Pals, an iconic sculpture by Vasily Konovalenko, was created between 1981 and 1984. It shows three revelers out for a night of drinking and song. Konovalenko loved this scene so much that he repeated it in other works — including enamels and bronz

Emigre Artist Sculpted Exquisite Gems Of Russian Folk Life

8:20pm April 04, 2013

by Corey Flintoff

Semiprecious stones were the medium of choice for Vasily Konovalenko, a Soviet ballet set designer turned sculptor. His masterful workmanship captured Russian characters, from Cossacks and drunks to country folk and czarist henchmen. He fell afoul of the authorities and left Russia for the U.S. in the 1980s.

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