Snøhetta expansion of the new SFMOMA, 2016; photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy SFMOMA

SFMOMA: The Brave New World of Art Museums

SFMOMA celebrated its 75th anniversary with a huge architectural expansion, only rivaled by its technological innovations.
Paul Gauguin, Nafea Faa Ipoipo? (When Will You Marry? ) 1892, oil on canvas, 101 x 77 cm

The Real Reason Fine Art Costs So Much

To outsiders, art auctions can seem like a parody of bizarre spending by wealthy people. The origins of ultra-expensive art lies in the nineteenth-century.
Installation view at Elmhurst Biennial

Artist-Designer John Preus

Artist John Preus maintains a professional design studio that uses 2nd hand materials, including discarded furniture from closed Chicago Public Schools.
Lions painted in the Chauvet Cave. This is a replica of the painting from the Brno museum Anthropos. The absence of the mane sometimes leads to these paintings being described as portraits of lionesses.

Reinterpreting The Chauvet Cave Paintings

Do France’s Chauvet Cave paintings depict a contemporary volcanic eruption? Recent research argues that they do. 
Artist Faith Ringgold poses for a portrait in front of a painted self-portrait during a press preview of her exhibition, "American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Ringgold explains her "confrontational art" _ vivid paintings whose themes of race, gender, class and civil rights were so intense that for years, no one would buy them. "I didn’t want people to be able to look, and look away, because a lot of people do that with art," Ringgold said. "I want them to look and see. I want to grab their eyes and hold them, because this is America." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Power in the Painting: Faith Ringgold and her Story Quilts

Through a didactic retelling of history, artist Faith Ringgold uses her story quilts to reframe the past.
Le bateau-atelier The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. "Le bateau-atelier (another impression)" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 10, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/7d3b4edc-0895-16f4-e040-e00a18067a68

Why We Should Preserve Artist Studios

The rich historical and inspirational sites of artists’ studios and homes make them worthy of historical preservation.
Dianna Frid

On Text and Textile with Artist Dianna Frid

Mexican-Canadian artist Dianna Frid explore the ways physical forms shape how we conceive of reality. 
Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher: Questioning Race

Artist Ellen Gallagher interweaves text and images to force viewers to confront and question race in American society. 
Album cover in handmade paper (from the Heavy Rotation Series), 2015 Krista Franklin

Afrofuturist Artist Krista Franklin

Visual artist Krista Franklin uses various media to create fantastic new worlds inspired by science fiction, the Black Arts Movement, and Afrofuturism.
da Vinci's Mona Lisa

Introducing “And, Also, Too”: A Column Dedicated to the Theory and Practice of Art

The image of the artist as eccentric genius or shaman is ubiquitous in popular culture for good reason. ...