Nine Black Cat Stickers
They crossed our path and we lived to tell the tale. Check them out in the Street Arts Graphics Collection!
The Paintings That Tried (and Failed) to Codify Race
Casta paintings of the eighteenth century tried to show who was who in New Spain. But reality was much more complicated.
Polish Posters in the RISD Library Collection
Posters are part of a tradition of object-based learning at the Rhode Island School of Design.
How the Artists Union Shook Up the New Deal
When artists showed solidarity with one another and the larger labor movement, they won federal patronage.
The Wellcome Collection—Perfect Medicine for the Incurably Curious
Pharmacy genius, Henry Solomon Wellcome amassed a lot of knowledge—and amazing tchotchkes too.
How Black Artists Fought Exclusion in Museums
When the Metropolitan Museum of Art excluded artworks from a major exhibition all about Harlem, Black artists protested the erasure.
Fake Stone and the Georgian Ladies Who Made It
Coade stone was all the rage in late eighteenth-century architecture, and a mother-and-daughter team was behind it all.
Who Were the Male Models in French History Paintings?
Before the French Revolution, professional models were salaried professionals. That would all change in the nineteenth century.
Martin Luther’s Monsters
Prodigies, or monsters, were opaque and flexible symbols that signaled that God was sending some message.
Deep Mapping with Tim Robinson
By walking his way around an island off the coast of Ireland, the late artist broke with cartography's origins in marking ownership and conquest.