Lavender and gold silhouettes of soldiers on horseback, waves, and a kneeling figure overlap on the flat plane of Aaron Douglas’s “Let My People Go” (1935–39)... By Allison Meier.

A fossil found in the African desert is the biggest of its kind. By Brian Switek.

Two centuries ago, Sarah Baartman died after years spent in European “freak shows.” Now rumours over a possible Hollywood film about Baartman's life have sparked controversy. By Justin Parkinson.

Today, very few white Americans openly celebrate the horrors of black enslavement—most refuse to recognize the brutal nature of the institution or actively seek to distance themselves from it... By Lisa Hix.

The huge collection of books belonging to Dr John Dee, adviser to Queen Elizabeth I and proto-modern scientist, is being exhibited for the first time. (Dec. 16)

The influence of street culture on art in Los Angeles has been systematically underrepresented by academia and art history. Although scholarly research has traced the origin of gang graffiti from the 1930s on, this aesthetic has been largely absent from the dialogue about the shaping of modern art. By Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre.

There can be few more contentious subjects than the empire, and few artistic legacies more explosive. Now, Tate Britain is to hold the first major British exhibition of masterworks from the colonial period – and the results are revealing. By William Dalrymple.

Twenty-one Greek museums and four North American museums have cooperated to collect over five hundred artifacts from Ancient Greece in an extraordinary exhibition called “The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great.” By Garry Wills.

A selected chapter from the exhibition catalogue for the Walker Center’s “Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia” by curator Andrew Blauvelt.

“Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk,” an illuminating exhibition at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, traces Muller-Munk’s evolution from craftsman of precious objects to stylist of household appliances. By Martin Filler.