All tagged Painting
CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #20: Sofonisba Anguissola: Great (Woman) Artist
Hi listeners! I’ve been traveling over last month, and am preparing to hit the road again, and to begin sharing new episodes to your feed next week. So, things have been a bit busy over here. So while we put the finishing touches on next week’s episode, I’m re-airing one of my old favorites from the first season of the podcast. And guess what? It’ll prepare you nicely for the next season. Wink wink. Today, I’m returning to share the story of Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the most prominent female artists of the Italian Renaissance.
Episode #87: Art Fact and Fiction: Is Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring a Maid in his Household? (S10E04)
In our tenth season, we’re going at art history with a skeptical eye and a myth-busting attitude to uncover the fictions and facts about some of our favorite artists. We’re starting our season today with this controversial subject: is the woman featured in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring a maid from his household?
Episode #86: Art Fact and Fiction: Are Georgia O'Keeffe's Paintings References to the Female Body? (S10E03)
In our tenth season, we’re going at art history with a skeptical eye and a myth-busting attitude to uncover the fictions and facts about some of our favorite artists. We’re starting our season today with this controversial subject: Are Georgia O'Keeffe's floral paintings direct references to the female body?
Episode #85: Art Fact and Fiction: Did Michelangelo Paint the Sistine Ceiling Alone, on his Back? (S10E02)
In our tenth season, we’re going at art history with a skeptical eye and a myth-busting attitude to uncover the fictions and facts about some of our favorite artists. We’re starting our season today with this fascinating theory: did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling all alone, while lying on his back?
Episode #84: Art Fact and Fiction: Is "Mona Lisa" Really Leonardo in Drag? (S10E01)
In our tenth season, we’re going at art history with a skeptical eye and a myth-busting attitude to uncover the fictions and facts about some of our favorite artists. We’re starting our season today with this fascinating theory: Is the Mona Lisa really just a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in drag?
Curious Callback--Episode #54: True Crime/Fine Art: Otto Dix and the Plot to Kill Hitler (Season 6, Episode 1)
Enjoy this month’s Curious Callback episode, all about a “degenerate” painter much-hated by Hitler and fingered for his near-murder. Did Otto Dix plot to kill Hitler?
This is an episode that originally aired on September 30, 2019.
Episode #75: Art Auction Audacity-- Qi Baishi's Twelve Landscape Screens (Season 8, Episode 7)
In our eighth season, we’re exploring examples of some of the most expensive artworks ever sold at auction considering why they garnered so much money, and discovering their backstories. Today: Qi Baishi’s Twelve Landscape Screens.
Episode #72: Art Auction Audacity-- Rothko's No. 6 (Violet, Green, and Red) (Season 8, Episode 4)
In our eighth season, we’re exploring examples of some of the most expensive artworks ever sold at auction considering why they garnered so much money, and discovering their backstories. Today: Mark Rothko’s No. 6 (Violet, Green, and Red).
Episode #54: True Crime/Fine Art: Otto Dix and the Plot to Kill Hitler (Season 6, Episode 1)
Welcome to Season 6 of the ArtCurious Podcast! This season we’re learning that true crime and art history are two genres that have smashed together with some fascinating results. First up: a “degenerate” painter much-hated by Hitler and fingered for his near-murder. Did Otto Dix plot to kill Hitler?
Episode #34: Rivals- Pollock vs. de Kooning (Season 3, Episode 3)
The art world is a man’s world- or, at least, it used to be entirely one. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who is a longtime listener of the ArtCurious Podcast, because we’ve touched multiple times on the difficulties that have faced women who have sought careers as artists. Now, thankfully, in the age of #metoo, the male-heaviness of the art world is changing a bit, as it is in other facets of society. But turning back the clock to any other era in history, and the reality is that it was totally a man’s game. And the absolute manliness of it all was compounded intensely in one particular time and place: post-war America, where it was all about brusque machismo, the biggest innovations, and the biggest splash. It was a measuring contest like none other, and two larger-than-life characters were at the center of it all.
Episode #23: Combat Artists of WWII (Season 2, Episode 3)
In the winter of 1945, a World War II infantryman for the United States would be supplied with gear that was to be carried and trekked from location to location, regardless of weather, ailment, or occurrence. All of this gear alone could easily weigh a good 50 to 60 pounds. Add on a rifle or pistol, bullets and any appropriate add-ons needed to maintain, clean, and restock a weapon, and you are talking a serious load to haul around. To a handful of these men, however, it wasn’t their guns, their helmets, or their first aid kits that were the most significant pieces of equipment that they transported to the battlefield. No- there was a more specialized tool of utter importance. As one soldier, Edward Reep, noted, quote, “I fought the war more furiously perhaps with my paintbrush than with my weapons.”
Today, we're discussing a group of dedicated and talented artists who threw themselves in the middle of war in order to capture the experience and create art about it.
Episode #22: Hitler the (Failed) Artist (Season 2, Episode 2)
In June 2015, an auction house in Nuremberg, Germany, made headlines for a group of 14 small works sold for a sum of around $450,000. But when it comes to art and art auctions, we have to face a truth: a grand total of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, spread out over the sale of fourteen separate pieces of mediocre quality, at a small auction house in Europe? Really, that isn't a fantastic haul, and shouldn't have garnered too much media interest. And yet it was a big deal. Why? What was so great about them? Well, it actually wasn't about quality or greatness at all. It was more about notoriety, because the artist was one of the most abhorrent human beings in all of history. The artist was Adolf Hitler.
In this episode, we contemplate the way that fine art inspired, affected, and ultimately molded the man who would become the biggest architect of terror in the 20th century.
CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #3: The Semi-Charmed Life of Elisabeth Vigeé Le Brun
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, had an image problem: she was seen as frivolous, silly, and out-of-touch. In order to combat her poor press, the royal court commissioned a series of portraits of the queen to make her more relatable and sympathetic. Such images act as excellent propaganda machines, giving Marie Antoinette a much-needed positive spin. But what is even more marvelous is the backstory of the artist who created these portraits-- because the painter who was chosen to portray the highest woman in the land was… another woman.
Talk about a revolution.
In the third episode of the ArtCurious Podcast, we'll look at the lucky and semi-charmed life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, one of the most popular painters of 18th-century France and the official court painter of Marie Antoinette.
Episode #20: Sofonisba Anguissola: Great (Woman) Artist
Today’s special episode of ArtCurious is the end result of a collaboration with art historian Ellen Oreddson and her excellent blog, How to Talk About Art History. Ellen has her own contribution to this topic on her site, where she lists five artists, inspired by the five women artists hashtag, and briefly discusses why each has been left out of the traditional art historical canon. Don't miss this insightful and fascinating post!