The Best Articles in Art
The most useful articles and videos in Art from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Art Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Art by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
An AI artist explains his workflow
How it works — and why it takes a surprisingly long time to make something good.Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://...
A Brief History of Art Movements
The first piece of visual art in history is from 40,000 years ago. The need to create is a part of being human. It’s as old as our species and as innate as a...
AI and Image Generation (Everything is a Remix Part 4)
#ai #aiart #imagegen The Age of AI has arrived and its first flashpoint is art. AI is revolutionizing how we create, view, and experience art, while sparking...
The Making of the Impossible Statue
A unique fusion of artistry spanning 500 years from some of the world’s most iconic sculptors was made possible through AI and our advanced digital manufactu...
Why is this painting of a black square famous?
Discover the symbolism of Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square,” and how it pushed the boundaries of what art is and what it can be.--In 1915, an exhibition of r...
What is ...?
New to Art? These articles make an excellent introduction.
The Woman Who Theorized Color: An Introduction to Mary Gartside’s New Theory of Colours (1808)
Shared by 1178, including Marcos, Jennifer Ouellette, Tamsen Webster, Message Strategist (she/her), Gabriele
What is Generative Art?
An artwork may be generative in some ways and not in others. A piece could have generative aspects even if the artist didn’t have that intention. There are ways in which a painting could be considered…
How to ...?
How to change the course of human history
Art work by Banksy (title unknown). Source: Flickr For centuries, we have been telling ourselves a simple story about the origins of social inequality. For most of their history, humans lived in tiny…
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Art on Refind.
What Should Men Do with Their Hands?
Hannah Carlson's Pockets asks the tough questions.
Making architecture easy
Unlike nearly all other arts, architecture is inherently public and shared. That means that buildings should be designed to be agreeable – easy to like – not to be unpopular works of genius.
Building copyright: an absurdist work in progress
Would you say that a(n actual) banana duct-taped to a wall may be protected by copyright? And would you consider a claim that the author of said duct-taped banana copied the work of another artist who…
Conserving a Burmese offering vessel
Follow Conservation intern Maxim as he prepares a spectacular metre-high offering vessel for our latest exhibition.
Iran’s street art shows defiance, resistance and resilience
Iranian artists are showing renewed determination to promote freedom as a cultural necessity in Iran, even in the face of a government crackdown.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Art—all under 10 minutes.
Taste
On subjectivity, gatekeeping, and the risk of leaving design industry terms like taste undefined.
The perfect drawing tool
What pen and pencil is best for sketching? Learn how the personality of pencils, pens, and brushes can influence your art and your creative growth. This is what you need to get started with drawing…
Artists have forgotten how to draw
Pain is at the heart of a traditional education
«a curriculum that marries hard-won skill with creative expression is the ideal to strive for.»
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder—but Memorability May Be Universal
When humans and a neural network viewed pieces of art, they all found the same images memorable. What those images have in common offers a glimpse into what fascinates the brain.
You'll Need a Microscope to See These Miniature Masterpieces
Sometimes painted with a single eyelash, Willard Wigan's tiny sculptures fit in the eye of a needle
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Art.
On the Aesthetic Turn
The critical tide is turning, once again. The professional critics—and not just the old, curmudgeonly ones—are fed up with moralizing, and they are willing to […]
The age of average
In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid hired a market research firm to survey the public on what they wanted in a work of art. Across 11 countries they then…
An Interview with Emily Segal — Are.na
Are.na is a platform for connecting ideas and building knowledge.
The Art of the Shadow: How Painters Have Gotten It Wrong for Centuries
The goal is not to expose the “slipups” of the masters but to understand the human brain.
Multiple worlds has been given artistic impetus by physics
Long a matter of philosophical speculation, the idea of multiple realities has been given new artistic licence by physics
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Art, including:

Mona Chalabi
Data Editor, Guardian US. Trying to take the numb out of numbers, left with lots of ers. Email me… mona@monachalabi.com

Jessica Hische
Lettering Artist & New York Times Bestselling Author mastodon: @jessicahische@typo.social
Artnet
The art world online.
Artsy
For the art obsessed. Discover, buy, and sell art by the world’s leading artists—all on the Artsy app.

Tate
We can’t wait for you to see our newest exhibitions across our four galleries. Book tickets today. 🎟️💛
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Who are the thought leaders in Art?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Art, including Mona Chalabi, Jessica Hische, Artnet, Artsy, Tate.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
250k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.