Howard Kaplan

As we celebrate National Cake Decorating Day on Friday, October 10 (people, check your calendars!), I can think of no greater tribute to the sugary art of confection than pausing to look at one of Wayne Thiebaud's own creations.

The market's up! The market's down! While the financial markets try to regain their footing, I decided to see how artists have portrayed Wall Street over the years, and came across this interesting lithograph by Arnold Ronnebeck.

Eric Widing, head of the American Paintings and Sculpture Department for Christie's since 1998, kicked off the 2008 Collector's Roundtable series with his talk, "Buying at Auction," offering us a capsule of his years in the art business.

Mark Dion has been chosen as the 2008 winner of the Lucelia Artist Award, given annually by the Smithsonian American Art Museum to an artist younger than 50 who has shown outstanding creativity through an exceptional body of work.

Bill Viola kicked off the 2008 Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series last week to a full house at SAAM. His talk "Transfigurations" gave a behind-the-scenes look into the artist's Zen-influenced philosophy of art, life, technology, and death.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, partners in art and in life, were on hand at SAAM Saturday afternoon for a screening of Running Fence, the film about the making of their 1976 project in northern California. SAAM just acquired documentary material and artwork from Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972–76.

You've been hearing a fair amount about Night at the Museum II: Battle of the Smithsonian in the papers, in the blog, and via general buzz on the street. It got me thinking about sequels to originals and sequels to sequels.

In the mid 1970s, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose outdoor sculptural works of art have captivated us for years, created their epic project, Running Fence, in northern California. We’re excited that Christo and Jeanne-Claude will be at the Museum Saturday afternoon.

It wasn't your typical Wednesday morning in downtown DC. Famed Pop-artist Roy Lichtenstein's Modern Head was installed today outside of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, at the corner of F and Ninth Streets.

Nothing in the collections of SAAM is 17,000 years old, but a recent article in the Washington Post got me thinking about taking care of, and preserving, works of art.

Sam Gilliam is represented in the current exhibition, Local Color, but there's another painting of his on display nearby. Swing is representative of the artist's canvases that were not stretched, but draped and suspended from the ceiling and adjoining walls.

Not every Civil War reenactor tramps off to the battlefields with rations of hardtack; some prefer to hit the dance floor instead. On Saturday August 16 at noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., the Victorian Dance Ensemble will be performing at SAAM in honor of the exhibition, The Honor of Your Company is Requested: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ball.

Stan Brakhage's film, 23rd Psalm, Branch (Part I) from his Song series is forty-four minutes of war footage interspersed with images of the filmmaker's home town in Colorado. Brakhage made it in 1966 as a personal response to the Vietnam war.

Inspired by Howard Cook's 1930 woodcut Summer Vegetables, I wandered through the farmer's market at Dupont Circle (fairly close to my home in downtown Washington, D.C.) in search of the same items that appear in Cook's work. And I'd say I came back with a pretty successful haul: corn, tomatoes, summer squash, and snap peas.

And tonight the Oscar goes to . . . David Beck, best known at SAAM for two of his works, MVSEVM and Movie Palace; the latter is on view in the Luce Foundation Center for American Art on the third floor at SAAM.

Bill Viola's The Passing is fifty-four minutes of visual comment on the themes of birth, life, and death.

With the recent death of seminal artist Robert Rauschenberg, the airwaves and the blogwaves have been filled with stories of the artist, from his childhood in North Dakota to his early days at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, to the heady years in New York City. Rauschenberg also left his footprints in another city that played a significant role in his life: that's right, our very own Washington, D.C.

Summer at SAAM is bound to heat up this week as we kick off Carnaval del Corazón, or Carnival of the Heart. This Thursday evening, July 3 from 5 to 8 p.m., join us in the skylit Kogod Courtyard for salsa demonstrations and dancing, accompanied by irresistible music from Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Greetings from Paris. I'm here for a week for the exhibition of a friend's paintings and have fallen in love all over again with this city. It's a city for the senses: everything seems a bit more alive here, a bit more full. Artists and writers (and lovers) have always been drawn to Paris. It's also an excellent place for bloggers!

Anna Deavere Smith gave the final talk in the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series. Smith spoke about a Ruth Orkin photo, Member of the Wedding, Opening Night, Ethel Waters, Carson McCullers, and Julie Harris, New York City, 1950. I never knew that a seemingly quiet photo could say so much.