Guatemala’s Regina José Gallindo's works protested abuses against women

Investigating 'the city that kills women'

For nearly three decades, thousands of women have disappeared near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Some were mutilated in ways that led authorities to suggest it the work of a serial killer, some were trafficked into slavery, and others have never been found. Opening with a hail of bullets, this 10-part podcast series hopes to uncover those responsible for the femicides.

Marina Abramović subjected herself to pain and humiliation in her ‘Rhythm’ series

The five performances, which included an invitation for the audience to use 72 objects as they pleased, helped put her on the map as a fearless artist, but they also caused her physical harm.

Watch a 2008 interview with Gloria Steinem, a leading voice in second-wave feminism.

Marina Abramović provides an interesting bridge between mainstream pop culture and unconventional art

In a 2024 interview with GQ, Abramović shares her opinion on the “Barbie” movie and Kim Kardashian, while also sharing abstract insights into the power of dreaming, solitude, and stillness.

Explore the annotated cover of the inaugural issue of Ms., the feminist magazine cofounded by Gloria Steinem.

Abramović's work explores intense, transient interpersonal moments

In this 2025 interview, the artist speaks candidly about her traumatic childhood, her enduring interest in exploring pain and pleasure, and how performance taught her to control her pain.

Picasso's 'Guernica' protested the bombing of a Basque village

By 1937, Picasso's fame and influence had already made him a legend. Yet an unprovoked war crime in Guernica, Spain that same year—where 25 bombers dropped 100,000 pounds of bombs and explosives on civilians—inspired one of his most moving works.

Salvador Dalí’s collaborations with fashion designers

Dalí was known to dabble in the world of fashion and formed a bond with the bold Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Their collaborations birthed iconic designs like a bureau-drawer suit and a lobster dress.

South Korean artist uses her own body as a canvas

Dain Yoon is a South Korean artist whose whimsical paintings utilizing her body as a canvas have gone viral. See examples of her works where she uses her face and torso to present elaborate, often surreal, visual works.

Experience Maya culture through art—both ancient and modern

This gallery showcases how Maya culture endures through both ancient monuments and modern artistic expressions, tracing visual traditions from pre-Columbian carvings and murals to contemporary works created by Maya artists.

Tattoos suppressed during colonization are experiencing a revival

A few decades ago, the distinct facial tattoos worn by Maori people were on the brink of disappearing. Then, Maori artists brought the cultural practice back into the spotlight. This TVNZ story follows one reporter’s mother as, at 59 years old, she receives tā moko from a Maori artist.

An interactive documentary exploring violence in the Central African Republic

This photographic and audio documentary explores a decade of violence in the Central African Republic. In March 2013, rebel groups in the north of the country united to form Seleka, which went on to take power of CAR’s capital. Waves of violence...

How Lucia Moholy's photography captured the Bauhaus aesthetic

The photographer was one of the few affiliated with the school who photographed its locations, documenting the modern style long after the Nazis had driven its artists from Germany. This podcast episode explores why she went uncredited for so many years.

See a day in the life of an Aztec midwife

This illustrated story follows Xoquauhtli, a midwife in the Aztec Empire, as she juggles childbirth duties during the festival of Teteoinnan, navigating the tension between professional responsibility and participation in the empire’s religious ceremonies, including ritual sacrifice.

Explore a feminist reading of Mary Cassatt's work

Artsy's Olivia Horn considers the American Impressionist's work from a 21st-century perspective, unpacking how her focus on women's lives was a revolutionary act for the 19th century that still resonates today.

The dark side of museum collections

Using the example of a sacred Nepali religious object that was stolen from a village in the 1980s and which later appeared in the Met’s collection, this article looks at the controversies that have swirled around some of the museum’s pieces. In addition to the Nepali statue, the piece outlines decades of questionable collection practices––some of which are clear-cut cases of theft.

In 'Cut Piece,' Yoko Ono invited the audience to her clothes

Much more than simply John Lennon’s partner, Yoko Ono is a prolific multimedia artist in her own right. Her 1964 performance "Cut Piece" invited audience members to come onstage and cut away pieces of her clothing. She described the piece as being about solidarity between women and the possibility for world peace, saying, “By not fighting, we show them that there's a whole world, which could exist by being peaceful.”

Rediscovering the Inca Empire

In 1991, anthropologist Johan Reinhard was trekking up the snowy face of a dormant volcano when he came face to face with the mummified remains of a teenager who had been sacrificed to the Incan gods centuries earlier. The story of “Juanita the Ice Maiden” is just one of the riveting tales featured in this four-part series from the popular podcast "History Hit".

Pompeii’s ruins expose the brutal realities of Rome’s sex trade

Drawing on graffiti, slave collars, brothel art, and the story of “Eutychis, a Greek lass with sweet ways,” this piece reconstructs the violent, coercive world of Pompeii’s enslaved prostitutes—and how their owners controlled, renamed, and exploited them.

The '90s riotgrrrl movement brought female-fronted bands to the front

The movement—which pushed back on punk’s misogyny and argued for a countercultural form of third-wave feminism—began in self-published magazines before taking root in bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. The scene’s music and ethos can still be found in contemporary acts like Olivia Rodrigo.

Marina Abramović continues to shock audiences in her 70s

Growing older did not limit Abramović from continuing to work or stir controversy. Reenactments of her older performances continue to generate strong responses from viewers, especially in a cultural atmosphere that she views as increasingly hostile and regulated. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Doctors ignored women's pain as a nurse replaced their fentanyl with saline

This five-part podcast series, produced by Serial Productions, focuses on the experiences of women undergoing fertility treatments at a Yale clinic where a nurse secretly replaced pain medication with saline solution. This led to women experiencing excruciating pain during procedures, but the clinic downplayed or ignored their complaints.

Women's wartime suit features silk dyed with CRISPR-modified bacteria

Anna Dumitriu's bioart piece was created to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first use of penicillin in a human patient and intends to raise awareness about the rapid development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens by using bacteria that have essentially been transformed into their pre-antibiotic era state.

Take a virtual tour of Gloria Steinem's Manhattan apartment, a hub for feminist activism in the 1960s and '70s.

Listen to an interview with Martha Graham from 1974

This interview, from the "Bernard Gabriel Views the Music Scene" program, features a candid conversation in which Graham discusses how her career did not take off until her 30s and how she learned to ignore criticism.

Why Orwell called Dalí a 'disgusting human being'

Writer George Orwell took offense at the disturbing actions described in Dalí's salacious autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí." In a 1944 essay, Orwell described the cruelty and moral degradation of Dalí—while also admitting the artist's undeniable talent.

View a collection of glass sculptures of corals threatened by fishing and deep-sea mining.

In 2015, a custom virus program was used to destroy and transform art images

At the Art Laboratory Berlin's "bOdy pandemOnium: Immersion into Noise" exhibit, Chicago-born artist Joseph Nechvatal explored viractualism—the interface between the biological and the technological—via a custom virus program that randomly altered images representing the human eye and rectum.

Goya's 'The Second of May 1808' inspired Picasso's 'Guernica'

Goya’s painting commemorated Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s armies, making it a notable part of both the history of Spain and the romantic movement. But it took scholars over a century to realize the impact it had on Pablo Picasso, whose own anti-war work, “Guernica,” used Goya’s painting as a reference.

Guatemala's Day of the Dead tradition fills the sky with colorful kites

In a tradition that has lasted over 3,000 years, Guatemalans launch giant kites into the air on the eve of Day of the Dead. The colorful kites honor the dead and carry messages of hope, love and peace to the world.

‘Rhythm’ 0 was a performance piece that exposed human nature

By inviting the audience to do as they please without repercussions, Abramović showed the public both the beauty and hideousness of human nature. Playful interactions eventually turned into assault, and the performance left her with scars she still wears decades later.

Hear the story of a doctor who decided to flee Cuba with his family in 1963

In this StoryCorps conversation, Gustavo Mestas reflects on leaving the island with his family in 1963 and the difficult transition that followed—from treating patients in Cuba to picking tomatoes and cleaning motels while rebuilding a life in the US.

After actress Ingrid Bergman had a child out of wedlock, a Colorado senator proposed granting the government the ability to ban performers deemed morally objectionable.

Marina Abramović took 3,500 photos of China while performing ‘The Lovers’

During the 90-day performance that took place on the Great Wall of China, Abramović lived in isolation, nearly fell into an abyss, and wrote poetry—among other transformative experiences.

1975: Betty Ford, remarks at the International Women's Year Conference

"Change, by its very nature, is threatening but it is also often productive."

An anthropologist spent years riding garbage trucks to understand what our trash says about us

Robin Nagle rode with New York City sanitation workers to trace the hidden life of what we throw out. Her research explores what the things we discard reveal about who we are. 1440 explores the hidden life of trash.

Listen to the experiences of an art historian who met Georgia O'Keeffe

Wanda M. Corn wrote the biography "Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern" and recounts her experience interviewing the artist in New Mexico. Hear interesting details from an O'Keeffe expert, including specifics about her clothes, her home and her upbringing.

Salvador Dalí and Coco Chanel bonded over art and fashion

In the late 1930s, Chanel hosted the eccentric artist to like and work in her home. Despite their differing styles, the two icons collaborated, and Chanel even inspired Dalí to mimic her perfume in his artwork.

Marina Abramović helped popularize performance art

Working across continents for over five decades has made Abramović one of the most recognizable and prolific performance artists in history. Her shocking oeuvre has involved self-harm, public nudity, exotic animals, and fire.

Marina Abramović and Ulay worked and lived together for 12 years

Their infamous body of work, known as “The Relation Works,” aimed to explore the dynamics between male and female partnerships, exposing power imbalances and frustration. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Watch Martha Graham perform 'Lamentation,' an influential piece on grief

Graham choreographed and performed the piece about grief, which premiered in 1930. The dance is performed while seated, with Graham's character attempting to free herself from an all-encompassing purple jersey.

One Mary Cassatt painting features a sly political message

Critics had long been puzzled by the unrealistic flower pinned to the woman's chest in the 1905 painting "Mother and Child." In exploring the painting's history, researcher Nikki Georgopulos discovered that the flower alluded to a women's suffrage badge popular at the time, something Cassatt emphasized in the painting's original title, "Woman With a Sunflower."

Scholars note that many Cassatt paintings are about women's labor

The women in her portraits are often performing domestic work, something that contemporary scholars consider a subtle protest of how women's labor was often overlooked during Cassatt's time. Fittingly, Cassatt often hired working-class women as models, ensuring the portraits were not only accurate but that the subjects were appropriately compensated.

Exploring Martha Graham's 'love of the body'

The innovative choreographer encouraged her dancers to tune into their bodies' natural movements. According to Kimerer L. LaMothe, author of "What a Body Knows," that kind of mindfulness made them better able to communicate a piece's symbolic meaning.

The Black Lives Matter movement coincided with the fall of the girlboss

It’s no coincidence that the white women who were seen as the faces of the girlboss movement (founders such as Audrey Gelman of The Wing and Christene Barberich of Refinery29, for instance) stepped away from their companies around the same time that America stepped into its era of racial reckoning with Black Lives Matter.

Indigenous women crafted the integrated circuits for the Apollo Guidance Computer

Applying their blanket-weaving skills, over 1,000 Navajo women in New Mexico were hired to connect circuit components in intricate patterns using a microscope. Outside Boston, "rope mothers" at the Raytheon facility wove the AGC's core memory using threaded metal wires.

With no textbooks or antibiotics, this WWI surgeon pioneered facial reconstruction

New Zealand surgeon Dr. Harold Gillies made extraordinary advances in the field of reconstructive surgery during World War I and after. This 36-minute NPR podcast interviews historian Lindsey Fitzharris, author of Gillie's biography, The Facemaker, charting how the good doctor reconstructed the faces of numerous soldiers in an age before antibiotics and plastic surgery as we know it today.

Lady Gaga studied the Abramovic Method

The Abramović Method compiles Abramović’s own learnings and gives instructions to other artists for remaining present and grounded. Pop star Lady Gaga learned the method and cited it as a huge influence on her work.

The 30 most important performance artists

Through centering on the human body, performance art can surprise and shock us. This rundown of 30 of its practitioners highlights their individual art and selects an image to showcase their specific style. While some are more clever or conceptual, many are viscerally shocking, including artistic nudity and, in some cases, graphic violence.

HRW explores women’s rights around the world

Human Rights Watch’s page documents human rights violations around the world affecting women and girls. The international women’s rights movement has made great strides over many years, but women and girls around the world continue to face...