A photograph of Howard Kaplan on a plane.

Howard Kaplan

Writer

Blog Posts

  • Pliessnig's Amanda
    Matthias Pliessnig: In Ship Shape
    "In 2006 I built a boat and was attracted to the process as well as to the form. It required a whole new way of thinking for me--a 180 degree turnaround," said artist Matthias Pliessnig, whose sublime, wood-ribbed works are on view in History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011 at the Renwick Gallery through July 31.
  • Paik TVs
    Let Them Eat Paik!
    Join John Hanhardt, senior curator for media arts, and artist Jim Campbell Wednesday evening at 6pm in American Art's Watch This! gallery for a celebration in honor of video artist Nam June Paik's birthday. Paik (1932-2006), internationally recognized as the father of video art, was also a composer, performer, and multimedia artist.
  • Media - 1986.65.113 - SAAM-1986.65.113_1 - 9724
    Latino Art 101 with Curator E. Carmen Ramos
    E. Carmen Ramos became the Smithsonian American Art Museum's curator of Latino art last fall. Now that she's had a chance to get settled, we caught up with her to ask about her interests and the rich holdings of Latino art in the museum's permanent collection.
  • Media - 1971.447.4 - SAAM-1971.447.4_1 - 4077
    Aultered States: George Ault’s Disquieting World
    "Welcome to the disquieting, and I may say, disturbing world of George Ault," independent historian Stephen May told us at the beginning of his lecture on the painter who is the subject of the exhibition To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, currently on view at the museum.
  • Theodore R. Davis, Patent-Office, Washington, DC— Examiners at Work
    A Special American Art July 4th Anniversary
    On July 4, 1836, President Andrew Jackson authorized the construction of a patent office, the historic landmark building that is now home to the American Art Museum.
  • Cliff Lee Vessels
    Cliff Lee and the Emperor’s Old Glaze
    "Yellow makes everything shine," ceramicist Cliff Lee said at the opening of the Renwick Gallery exhibition History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011, which features his work.
  • George Ault, "Old House, New Moon"
    Seeing Things (9): Cloudopolis
    Some of the more interesting clouds these days are hanging out at American Art's exhibition, To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America.
  • Media - 2002.58.25 - SAAM-2002.58.25_2 - 120642
    Collector’s Roundtable: Robert Lehrman
    Local DC collector and philanthropist Robert Lehrman was the third and final speaker in this year's Collectors' Roundtable series. Speaking on the "Secrets of the Art World," Lehrman tried to unlock those secrets for the enthusiastic audience who came to hear the collector speak on some of his favorite artists and acquisitions. His talk touched on the personal joys and perils of collecting as well as the larger purpose for art. As Lehrman said, "Collecting and supporting arts organizations is a vital civic responsibility."
  • Media - 1996.72 - SAAM-1996.72_1 - 65179
    Happy 100th Birthday Will Barnet!
    May 25, 2011 is the one hundredth birthday of American artist Will Barnet.
  • Media - 1991.83 - SAAM-1991.83_1 - 66466
    Judith Schaechter: Through A Glass, Darkly
    This is not your grandmother's stained glass. Inspired by sources as disparate as comic books, old cartoons such as Popeye, Japanese woodblock prints, medieval tapestries, and punk rock, Judith Schaechter practices a contemporary alchemy: turning glass into dark narratives.
  • Helen Zell
    Collectors’ Roundtable with Helen Zell
    In the more than sixty years since first collecting dolls and Katy Keene comics (complete with cut-out costumes!) as a child, Helen Zell, smitten with what she called "the collection gene gone wild," hasn't stopped. In more recent years, the Chicago born-and-based Zell and her husband Sam have amassed an important collection of twentieth century artwork as well as early ethnographic pieces.
  • Media - 2011.36A-D - SAAM-2011.36A-D_1 - 77692
    Alexis Rockman’s Manifest Destiny To Become Part of American Art’s Collection
    Alexis Rockman's monumental painting, Manifest Destiny, has just been approved for acquisition. The painting is made up of four contiguous panels that extend twenty-four feet in length, and depicts the Brooklyn waterfront several hundred years in the future.
  • Media - 1969.47.61 - SAAM-1969.47.61_2 - 90585
    Seeing Things (8): People in the Sun by Edward Hopper
    This is the eighth in a series of personal observations about how people experience and explore museums. Take a look at Howard's other blog posts on the subject.
  • Media - 2011.22A-C - SAAM-2011.22A-C_1 - 76568
    One Artist/​One Object: Ubaldo Vitali’s Silver Lining
    This is the first of four blog posts that takes a closer look at one object by each of the artists in the exhibition History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011 now on display at the Renwick Gallery until July 31.
  • Renwick Invitational
    History In the Making: Getting Crafty at the Renwick
    The Renwick Craft Invitational began eleven years ago, making the 2011 event, number five. If an exhibition can have a theme song, this year's Invitational, History in the Making would be, "Everything Old is New Again."
  • Media - 1976.121 - SAAM-1976.121_2 - 123041
    Darkness at the Edge of Town: George Ault and 1940s America
    George Ault didn't very much like the world-at-large, so he left New York City in 1937, and moved about 100 miles north to the village of Woodstock, New York with Louise Jonas, whom he would marry four years later.
  • Pheon
    He’s Got Game: Five Questions with CityMystery’s John Maccabee
    John Maccabee, founder of CityMystery, helped to create Ghosts of a Chance, American Art's first alternate reality game which was a first for museums everywhere. He and his team recently helped us launch Pheon, which has an online component as well. We caught up with the San Francisco-based Maccabee when he stopped by the museum last week.
  • Alexis Rockman, Cataclysm
    Five Questions with Thomas Lovejoy
    In conjunction with the exhibition Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow, the American Art Museum presents the Art and Science lecture series that places the science of climate change within a cultural context. Alexis Rockman kicked off the series.
  • Image Not Available
    Jasper Johns Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
    Jasper Johns, one of our favorite artists renowned for his paintings and printmaking, received the Medal of Freedom Tuesday night from President Obama.
  • Media - NJP.1.VID.1 - NJP.1.VID.1_1a.jpg - 74132
    Read This! Five Questions on Media Art with John Hanhardt
    John Hanhardt, the senior curator of media art at the American Art Museum, has put together the current exhibition, Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image in American Art's new media art gallery. It features the work of Nam June Paik, the founding father of video art, as well as Cory Arcangel, Bill Viola, Jim Campbell, Peter Campus, Svetlana and Igor Kopystiansky, Marina Zurkow, and Kota Ezawa, whose work, LYAM 3D, is best viewed with those funky blue and red 3D glasses provided in the gallery.