Visual Art

Visual Art

A silhouette of a person walks among three large abstract sculptures—one orange, one green, one blue—on a textured gray and white ground, creating a scene of art immersion.
Marine Tanguy — author and founder/CEO of MTArt Agency — argues that viewing and creating art has profound benefits.
Colorful abstract depiction of a human silhouette surrounded by layered, radiant patterns in various colors against a textured background.
From religious iconography to modern mysticism, the human aura has been a subject of fascination across centuries and cultures.
A spiral galaxy with a luminous core, surrounded by swirling arms and smaller galaxies, forms a mesmerizing bullseye ring galaxy, set against a backdrop of stars in space.
Ring galaxies are rare, but we think we know how they form. A new, early-stage version, the Bullseye galaxy, provides a new testing ground.
A sunflower with a detailed close-up of its center, showcasing spiral patterns intertwined with mathematics. Fibonacci sequence and mathematical diagrams elegantly overlay a serene blue background.
The artistic and the mathematical mind are not so far apart.
A grand, ornate setting with three figures in flowing attire standing before a large, luminous circular window overlooking a vibrant cityscape.
With no reliable way to discern the author of an artwork, we may eventually abandon the question of whether something was made by humans or not.
When we see pictures from Hubble or JWST, they show the Universe in a series of brilliant colors. But what do those colors really tell us?
A glitch art depiction of an old sketch reminiscent of Da Vinci, featuring a bearded man in a hat with digital distortion weaving through his face.
Burns’ latest documentary dives into the long-romanticized life and work of the Italian polymath.
A man in a green suit standing in an art gallery, using a spray bottle to clean a large painting of three hands reaching towards each other.
“I believe that in the future, there will be a Francis Bacon of AI art,” Saltz tells Big Think. “We just haven't seen that artist yet.”
A vintage photograph depicting a chaotic beach landing with soldiers in motion, blurred figures, and smoke clouds across the dune, evoking a sense of urgency and battle.
“Dune: Part One” screenwriter Eric Roth spoke with Big Think about the challenges of bringing Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic to the big screen.
A painting of a woman and two children.
You've certainly seen the paintings — but they don't depict what you think they do. Benjamin Moser discusses with Big Think.
A Zen-inspired painting of a group of apples on a table.
'Six Persimmons,' an ink painting by the Chinese monk Mu Qi, has long been hailed as the poster child of Zen Buddhism. But is its reputation deserved?
A painting of a man with a hat and fruit.
Using peach and eggplant emojis as shorthand for sex may seem like a new thing, but Renaissance artists were experts at using produce to imply intercourse.
A famous black and white painting.
Rejecting romanticism, these famous paintings depict war as it really is: sadistic and senseless.
Banksy mural Ukraine
In war zones, aggressors steal art to eradicate the cultural heritage of others. Victims, meanwhile, sell stolen art in order to survive.
a large white dome in the middle of a city.
Get ready for the most peculiar road trip that will help you understand the vastness and emptiness of the solar system — and Sweden.
a black and white drawing of two men in a library.
A new book by historian and author Paul Strathern argues that the Northern European Renaissance has long been overlooked.
a close up of a statue
As the stream of AI-generated art turns into a deluge, NFTs could become a cornerstone of the Virtual Renaissance.
a painting of a man with a bandage on his face.
To understand Vincent van Gogh, we must first debunk the myth of the tortured artist. Van Gogh believed his illness inhibited his creativity.
full circle rainbow ring optics physics
Most of us only ever see a fraction of a full rainbow: an arc. But optically, a full rainbow makes a complete circle. Physics explains why.
JWST NIRCam Tarantula Nebula
The glorious sights that JWST keeps revealing are less than a millionth of the whole Universe. Just imagine what else is out there.
Hungarian Gypsy Girl by Amrita Sher-Gil
In the West, discussions of 20th-century painting are dominated by Warhol and Picasso, but trendsetting artists are found everywhere.
Cézanne still life with bread and eggs
To answer that question, we may have to figure out when the famed painter started to go bald.
Ivan the Terrible and his son
Created in the 1880s, "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan," which depicts a father murdering his son, divides Russians to this day.
Even lifelong technologists and AI researchers like myself were genuinely surprised by the speed and impact of generative AI.
Abstract image of hands reaching through a picture frame.
By challenging your preconceptions, art offers a framework by which you can solve problems.
Like his "Mona Lisa," Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" depicts a woman in a way that flouted the conventions of its time.