SAAM Stories

A painting of Mrs. Charles Boynton Darling.
Three years ago we imagined the letters of nineteenth-century portrait sitters to Jonathan Van Ness, star of the Netflix’s series Queer Eye. With so many of us looking for advice about how to tame our unmanageable pandemic hair, we thought we’d take another look.
A black and white photograph of a person leaning out of a window, holding an umbrella.
A close exploration of a resilient community through the lens of three women photographers
Painting of a glass with lemon slices on a white plate next to a red cup and saucer.
07/12/2021
SAAM’s third floor galleries for modern and contemporary art are closed to the public temporarily beginning Monday, July 12 to make way for new artworks and new stories.
Two views of a painting under different lighting conditions.
Conservators at SAAM uncover new aspects of the influential artist’s work
Amber Kerr
Sydney Nikolaus
A woman looks up at a bust.
Senior Curator Eleanor Jones Harvey takes readers behind the scenes of an exhibition’s 17-month run
A woman in her studio making a cloth facemeask.
The artist focused on health and happiness, for herself and others, during the pandemic.
A black and white photograph of a person with short hair standing in front of a sign that says "Stop AIDS Los Angeles."
06/30/2021
Claudia Zapata, curatorial assistant for Latinx art, shares their insights on a series of photographs by Laura Aguilar recently acquired by SAAM
Head of Romaine Brooks wearing a hat, coat, and white shirt open at the collar.
06/29/2021
Romaine Brooks declaring who she is in her 1923 work, Self-Portrait, is ultimately a transgressive act for a LGBTQ+ person.
Etching of a healing scene
Artist Carmen Lomas Garza’s scenes from everyday life honor borderland culture and create community
Detailed crop of Twisted Column Figure
06/22/2021
Twisting Column Figure represents the freedom that comes once we commit to unlearning and undoing restrictions, from society and from ourselves.
Nathaniel Phillips
A painting displaying many different sports
06/17/2021
Take the father figure in your life on an online tour of sports in SAAM’s collection
Artist Timothy Horn standing on ladder next to his large chandelier sculpture made of rock sugar
Learn more about the artwork and evolving career of Timothy Horn, feature artist in Forces of Nature: Renwick Invitational 2020
A colorful opaque painting of men at a bar
06/10/2021
Bernard Perlin’s The Bar makes us reflect on the spaces we’ve carved out as our own.
Andrew Rondinone
A person with short hair stands in front of a case of prints.
Explore Dominican York Proyecto GRAFICA, a New York art collective inspired by Chicano print centers
A close-up of Kit Paulson's artwork, Lungs
Kit Paulson is currently a resident artist at the Penland School of Craft in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She makes intricate and whimsical glassworks that embody histories of ornamentation, material culture, and natural history. SAAM is acquiring her work, Lungs.
Painting with three angel figures hovering over a battlefield
05/28/2021
Discover how a partnership between SAAM and the American Battle Monuments Commission commemorates the honor, service and sacrifice of America’s fallen in wars abroad.