The Atlantic Culture

As pressures bore down on an American institution, its secretary held firm.

Don’t watch The Shards. Go read the book instead.

Washington, D.C., is full of cords of connection. By removing a Joel Shapiro work, the Kennedy Center severed one.

After months of clashes with the White House, the historian and leader of the institution is retiring later this year.

His paintings evoked an American innocence that didn’t exist—and that the nation couldn’t live up to.

A poem

His life as a writer and farmer was informed by a simple, clarifying idea: Forget tomorrow, and work toward what is good today.

Trump wants his ballroom and arch done while he’s in office. There’s a risk.

Onslaught is a victim of Hollywood’s obsession with turning everything into a franchise.

Why we need wonder

The activist and writer, who died yesterday at the age of 92, steadfastly fought for her belief that women could change the world together.

A renewed threat underscores the museum complex’s isolation—and the limits of Trump’s pressure campaign.

Cutesy aesthetics met calls for revolution at Olivia Rodrigo’s new music festival.

It used to be the peak symbol of wellness. Now many studios can barely stay open.

Chinese audiences are flocking to a new film that captures the pleasure of bad art.

A board of Trump loyalists keeps dragging out a legal fight over the center’s future.

The visionary artist once challenged ways of seeing—until she was seen by everyone.

KPop Demon Hunters’ inclusion in the high-class cinema catalog may signal a changing tide.

The actor could make all of his characters delightful to watch, no matter how sinister or strange.

The usual story is that Milton Avery mentored, then was eclipsed by, the famed abstract expressionist. But it was more complicated than that.