The Claude Glass Revolutionized the Way People Saw Landscapes
Imagine tourists flocking to a famous beauty spot, only to turn around and fix their eyes on its reflection in a tiny dark mirror.
Celebrating Black Artists
Profiles of Betye Saar, Krista Franklin, Miles Davis, Basquiat, Kanye West, Faith Ringgold and more.
Zora Neale Hurston
In a controversial letter, the versatile author expressed frustration with critics of segregation.
The New Negro and the Dawn of the Harlem Renaissance
In 1925, an anthology of Black creative work heralded the arrival of a movement that had been years in the making.
Is This a Gay House?
The British aristocrat Horace Walpole's villa Strawberry Hill was said to be evidence of his "degeneracy."
The Forgotten Radicalism of Black Light Posters
Fluorescents have fascinated artists for millennia, but the 1960s and '70s saw a generation of revolutionaries experiment with black light.
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.