A New Study Shakes Up Our Understanding of the World’s First Analog Computer
Ever since being salvaged by sponge divers in the Greek Mediterranean in 1901, the Antikythera mechanism has captured the imaginations of archaeologists and scientists with penchant for antiquity. A foot-high object of wood and bronze broken into more than 80 fragments, the Antikythera mechanism dates back 2,200 years and was a hand-powered model of the […]
Want to Smell Leonardo’s ‘Lady With an Ermine’? These Scientists Are Offering a Sniff
What might Leonardo da Vinci’s beloved Lady With an Ermine (ca. 1489–91) smell like? Old paint and varnish? A musty museum storage room? According to a team of Polish and Slovenian scientists, it’s somewhere in between. The researchers are part of a project dubbed Odotheka, which is hoping to build a library of scents based […]
A New Show of Collage by African-American Artists Finds Multiplicity in Black Identity
A museum exhibition opening in the nation’s capital this summer explores the ways that Black artists use the century-old medium of collage to treat subjects ranging from national heritage to sexual orientation, from notions of beauty to fragmentation and reconstruction. “Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage” is billed as the first major museum exhibition devoted […]
‘I Don’t Want to Give Up on Hope’: Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova on Creating Art in Exile
Even the most radical, anarchic movements of their day are eventually canonized by institutional powers, all while their contemporary equivalents continue to be forcefully crushed. Perhaps it is no surprise then to see archival documentation of early performances by the Russian punk feminist collective Pussy Riot appearing in a museum context. The group caught the […]
World’s Oldest Artwork Discovered in an Indonesian Cave
The oldest known example of figurative rock art has been identified in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Three human-like figures that appear to be interacting with a wild pig have been re-dated using new, more advanced methods and are now understood to be over 51,200 years old, some 5,000 years older than […]
The Hunt: What Happened to the Great Sphinx’s Nose?
Much like the desert winds that perhaps helped shape it, conspiracy theories swirl around the Great Sphinx guarding the Giza plateau—especially regarding how the winged lion’s human head lost its nose. One enduring hypothesis blames Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops for blowing the snout off during target practice. While that conspiracy’s long-debunked, it persists in popular culture. […]
‘Change Begins Now’: New Prime Minister Keir Starmer Delivers U.K. Election Victory Speech at Tate Modern
Sir Keir Starmer spoke to a crowd in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on July 5 after leading the Labour party to a historic landslide victory in the U.K.’s general election. “You campaigned for it. You fought for it. You voted for it. And now it has arrived,” the country’s new prime minister said shortly after […]
In Venice, British Artist Lincoln Townley Unveils New Work on the Perils of Capitalism
Every month, hundreds of galleries add newly available works by thousands of artists to the Artnet Gallery Network—and every week, we shine a spotlight on one artist or exhibition you should know. Check out what we have in store, and inquire for more with one simple click. What You Need to Know: Coinciding with the […]
A Metal Tube in a Polish Museum Turns Out to Be a 150-Year-Old Time Capsule
For decades, a metal tube discovered on a street in Poland sat undisturbed in a museum. A recent study of the object, however, has found that it is more than a humble tube, but a time capsule containing missives from more than a century ago. According to a press release from Poland’s Ministry of Science […]
There Is a Low-Key Light and Space Exhibition at LAX Airport
Amid the bustle of the Los Angeles International Airport, travelers can’t be faulted for missing an exhibition of works by the region’s most prominent artists. “Luminaries of Light & Space” celebrates the loose group of West Coast artists who, beginning in the 1960s, sought to expand perceptual experiences through light, color, and volume. On view […]