São Paulo Museum of Art

Lina Bo Bardi: Architect of Brazilian Modernism

A community-oriented architect, Lina Bo Bardi embraced the principles of modernism to design public buildings that remained connected to Brazil’s past.
Mae West c. 1930

Mae West and Camp

A camp diva, a queer icon, and a model of feminism—the memorable Mae West left behind a complicated legacy, on and off the stage.
War Camp Community Service. Newport News. American Library Association. c. 1919

Uncle Sam Wants You to Donate Books!

During World War I, the American Library Association built libraries on military training camps in a project that championed patriotism, literacy, and self-improvement.
From the cover of Credences, July 1975

14 Poems from Little Magazines

Poems by Alice Notley, Fred Moten, C. D. Wright, Jean Valentine, Michael Burkard, and more.
Geraint Lewis by kind permission of the Egypt Exploration Society

Pieces and Bits

What does it take to stage Cresphontes, a lost Euripides tragedy, when all that remains of it are a few fragments of papyrus?
Rene Magritte with 'Femme-Bouteille', his oil painting of a nude on a glass bottle, circa 1955

How René Magritte Became the Grudging Father of Pop Art

Though he dismissed Pop as “window dressing, advertising art,” many critics and artists of the 1960s claimed Magritte as the movement's greatest forebearer.
Chess Pieces

Chess, Unlike War, is a Game of Perfect Information

The late poet Charles Simic was a chess prodigy who used the queen and her court to conjure a hellscape that invoked a childhood in war-time Belgrade.
Vincent Mason aka P.A. Pasemaster Mase aka Maseo aka Plug Three, David Jude Jolicoeur aka Trugoy the Dove aka Dave aka Plug Two and Kevin Mercer aka Posdnuos aka Mercenary aka Plug Wonder Why aka Plug One of the hip hop trio De La Soul

Musicians Fought the Law, and the Law Won—Sometimes

De La Soul are known for the effect their use of samples had on their music sales and availability on streaming sites. They’re finally streaming. Why now?

Country Roads and City Scenes in Japanese Woodblock Prints

Explore two centuries of printmaking—from Hokusai and Hiroshige through Hiratsuka—in this online collection shared by Boston College.
Dummy boards, British or Dutch, circa 1690

Dummy Boards: the Fun Figures of the 1600s

These life-sized painted figures, popular in Europe and colonial America in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, were designed to amuse and confuse.