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Art & Design NPR explores the visual arts including design, photography, sculpture, and architecture. Interviews, commentary, and audio. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Art & Design

Arts & Life

Treasure or Trash? Artist Says It's in the Packaging

Artist Justin Gignac began putting garbage into boxes and selling them for as much as $100 to poke fun at the notion of value. A second project involves selling paintings of objects for the price of the item depicted. It's gotten him fancy dinners, video games and more.

Treasure or Trash? Artist Says It's in the Packaging

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Arts & Life

50 Years Later, Rod Serling's Play Is Performed

The creator of the television series The Twilight Zone often battled with the networks over the content of his scripts. Noon on Doomsday inspired by Emmett Till's story, was considered too hot for TV in the 50's. It was peformed for the first time Saturday night.

50 Years Later, Rod Serling's Play Is Performed

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Arts & Life

Photographer Trains a 'Complicated' Lens on Teens

Photojournalist Robin Bowman spent four years driving across the United States, photographing and interviewing more than 400 teens. Some of those pictures — and the teens' words — are included in her new book, It's Complicated: The American Teenager.

Photographer Trains a 'Complicated' Lens on Teens

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Author Interviews

Three Writers Are Drawn by the Allure of Comics

Comic books — or, in more highbrow parlance, graphic novelizations — are nudging their way onto the shelves of bookstores and the pages of literary magazines. And writers such as Joss Whedon and Jodi Picoult are trying their hand at the genre.

Three Writers Are Drawn by the Allure of Comics

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Music News

In Birmingham, Everyone Has Keys to the City

Residents of Birmingham, England, awoke recently to find pianos spray-painted with the words "Play me I'm yours" scattered across the city. It's the work of an art collective that wants to create unity and wonder in a place where both are scarce.

In Birmingham, Everyone Has Keys to the City

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Diversions

Cows with Lipstick: 'New Yorker' Reject Cartoons

Every week Matthew Diffee and his fellow artists concoct finely tuned, wryly witty cartoons. Then they send them to the New Yorker, which sometimes rewards them and other times ... doesn't.

Cows with Lipstick: 'New Yorker' Reject Cartoons

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High-Tech Hunt Aims to Find Missing Da Vinci Mural

An Italian engineer believes a mural by Leonardo da Vinci that hasn't been seen for 500 years is hidden behind another wall painting, and he says he can prove it. Maurizio Seracini plans to use an energy beam that can read pigments through walls.

High-Tech Hunt Aims to Find Missing Da Vinci Mural

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Arts & Life

New Secretary Picked to Lead Smithsonian

The president of Georgia Tech University, Wayne Clough, is named the new head of the Smithsonian Institution on Saturday. He becomes the 12th secretary in the institution's history. When he begins in July, he'll face myriad management and financial obstacles.

New Secretary Picked to Lead Smithsonian

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Ethiopian-American Artists Make Their Mark

Author Dinaw Mengestu is among a generation of Ethiopian Americans whose families fled the East African nation in the 1970s and '80s. Now their writing, music and art are adding a new chapter to the epic of American immigration.

Ethiopian-American Artists Make Their Mark

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Technology

Painter Spreads Internet Memes in Oil

The Dramatic Prairie Dog, the Grape-Stomping Lady, Diet Coke and Mentos: Each are short videos made famous by the Web — and all are now splashed on canvas thanks to Prague-based artist Jeremiah Palecek, who makes art from what others made viral online.

Painter Spreads Internet Memes in Oil

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