Marina Abramović and Ulay worked and lived together for 12 years

Marina Abramović and Ulay experienced a touching reunion during ‘The Artist Is Present’

Decades after their professional and personal breakup, the pair publicly reunited during Abramović’s popular MoMA show commemorating their previous collaborations. Their shared moment moved Abramović to tears and caused her to lean forward and grab his hands.

Marina Abramović wanted to create a shared consciousness between audience and performer in ‘The Artist Is Present’

The HBO documentary follows the preparation and execution of Abramović’s 2010 MoMA show, taking a deeper look into the emotional experience. Performing was both physically and emotionally taxing for the artist, and visitors were often moved to tears while connecting with her. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Marina Abramović continues to shock audiences in her 70s

Growing older did not limit Abramović from continuing to work or stir controversy. Reenactments of her older performances continue to generate strong responses from viewers, especially in a cultural atmosphere that she views as increasingly hostile and regulated. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Abramović and Ulay ended their partnership on the Great Wall of China

After over a decade of romance and collaboration, the pair formally separated in a 90-day performance that involved walking over 12 miles a day in solitude.

‘The Artist Is Present’ was inspired by an earlier performance titled ‘Nightsea Crossing’

In the ‘80s, partners Abramović and Ulay sat across from each other in public without moving or speaking. Ulay was unable to continue after a certain point, but Abramović kept going. “The Artist Is Present” marked Abramović continuing the performance without him.

Marina Abramović took 3,500 photos of China while performing ‘The Lovers’

During the 90-day performance that took place on the Great Wall of China, Abramović lived in isolation, nearly fell into an abyss, and wrote poetry—among other transformative experiences.

‘Seven Easy Pieces’ helped propel Marina Abramovic’s career to her famed MoMA solo show

For seven days, Abramović reenacted seven works by her peers for seven hours each. The performance attracted widespread attention that helped lay the groundwork for her life as a celebrity artist.

‘Rhythm’ 0 was a performance piece that exposed human nature

By inviting the audience to do as they please without repercussions, Abramović showed the public both the beauty and hideousness of human nature. Playful interactions eventually turned into assault, and the performance left her with scars she still wears decades later.

Endurance art strains and exhausts the body

Artists like Marina Abramović are known for testing the limits of human endurance. Endurance art can involve carrying heavy objects or posing uncomfortably for long durations. (This resource contains some artistic depictions of violence.)

Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic briefly feuded after collaborating

After appearing in Jay-Z’s music video for the song “Picasso Baby,” Abramović publicly accused the rapper of not donating to her institute, as he had previously promised. Jay-Z defended himself and shared his receipt, prompting Abramović to apologize about the misunderstanding soon after.

One of Sartre and de Beauvoir's lovers accused them of exploitation

The philosophical duo's open relationship sometimes included shared partners, including de Beauvoir's students. One of those students, Bianca Lamblin, wrote a book, "A Disgraceful Affair," about the experience and characterized it as sexual exploitation.

Why this artist staged a satirical romance with Mark Zuckerberg

Internet performance artist Harriet Richardson is using AI and Meta's social media tools to make it appear as though she's in a serious romantic relationship with Mark Zuckerberg. While the images generate laughs, Richardson also says they're part of a larger satirical project aiming to highlight the larger societal impact of Meta's decision to discontinue fact-checking content across its platforms.

Alfred Stieglitz was a significant photographer in the American modern art movement

Stieglitz took hundreds of famous portraits of O’Keeffe and helped cement her reputation in New York by showcasing her work in his famed gallery. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Watch a guided video tour of the Museum of Malware Art

The site includes installations, sculptures, textiles, musical pieces, and galleries inspired by malicious software and related technologies, including the ILOVEYOU virus, encryption protocols from ransomware attacks, and the Industroyer malware framework used by Russia to cut power to Ukraine.

Pompeii’s ruins expose the brutal realities of Rome’s sex trade

Drawing on graffiti, slave collars, brothel art, and the story of “Eutychis, a Greek lass with sweet ways,” this piece reconstructs the violent, coercive world of Pompeii’s enslaved prostitutes—and how their owners controlled, renamed, and exploited them.

Explore persistent 3D environments with Marble

Marble is a spatial AI system built by World Labs, a San Francisco startup focusing on world models (rather than large language models). Using a text prompt (or a single image or video), users can generate a "world" and move through it, edit it, or export it. The company and project are part of the broader spatial intelligence area of AI, where AI can simulate environments.

Why art history is filled with miserable brides

Paintings from the 19th century are filled with unhappy brides. The women are often visibly disturbed by their pending nuptials, sometimes even during the wedding ceremony. This Artnet article unpacks four famous examples of this trend, analyzing how and why the respective artists portrayed these disappointed figures.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Meet the Marree Man, one of the world's largest works of art

In the summer of 1998, a pilot flying over the Australian outback discovered a geoglyph 1.7 miles long featuring an aboriginal man hunting. The massive work of art is one of the world's largest.

The strange 1966 meet-up between Bob Dylan and John Lennon

The 1972 documentary "Eat The Document" featured a short clip of this interaction between the two stars, who'd become friends. The extended cut, though, shows the tension at the heart of their relationship, which was close to an artistic rivalry. Lennon was self-conscious that critics claimed his more serious turn was inspired by Dylan; Dylan, meanwhile, was annoyed by a comment Lennon had made earlier that week about his song "Forth Time Around" sounding like a copy of The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood."

Andy Warhol’s Catholic background influenced his art

Warhol’s life and work hold clear religious through lines, from his Byzantine Catholic upbringing to reexaminations of his catalog, including an unfinished work for the 1968 world’s fair commissioned for the Catholic Church through a local Catholic university.

Has anyone had sex in space?

Reproduction is a basic human function, and while we've spent decades in space, no research has been done into the process. With many discussing the possibility of human-occupied bases on the moon, Mars, and more, understanding how sex works outside...

Guatemala’s Regina José Gallindo's works protested abuses against women

In this in-depth interview with Bomb magazine, she discusses her motivations and inspirations for pieces like Recorte Por La Línea, in which she invited a plastic surgeon to mark everything he would change on her body to make it “ideal.”

Eleven architects collaborated to create the UN building in NYC

Renowned leaders in the field, accustomed to control over their projects, had to work together to complete the building. This quick article explores the tensions and cooperation of the architects to complete the UN building.

Private home footage of Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun

Care to see what else Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, were up to during World War II? Then check out this National Archives footage. Some of the videos have been colorized, and all were taken from a collection titled Motion Picture Films Confiscated from Foreign Countries and Sources, between 1940–44.

Trudging through the dark web to expose child abuse

A computer expert who created a system to track down sources of revenge porn and an investigative journalist joined forces to investigate digital abuse. Their investigations focused on so-called clear nets, websites that make up the web most users surf. Then, they turned their investigation toward the dark web, where they found a child abuse website with more than 1 million registered users.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight