All tagged death

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #17: The Casino of the Spirits

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #17: The Casino of the Spirits

Jennifer Dasal
CURIOUS CALLBACK, SEASON 1: Eps. 1-20

Venice-- it's the most serene and beautiful city in Italy, and possibly the whole world. But Venice at night-- all darkened and quiet-- takes up the most space in my imagination. I seriously love the depictions of Venice as enigmatic, shadowy, and even dangerous. Without cars or streetlights or other modern comforts, you might feel like you’ve stepped back in time and that around any given corner, you could find… anything. All of this lends Venice this air of inscrutability and mystery. And over time, locals and visitors alike have reveled in this sensation as fodder for myth-making and storytelling. Some stories really stick, lasting for centuries and becoming embedded into the city itself, through its buildings, monuments, and specific locations. And there’s one building that has had plenty of legends built around it. This particular elegant structure had an illustrious past, having once been a meeting place where Italian Renaissance artists discussed their craft, caroused, and gambled. But it’s also the location where relationships soured, crimes were committed, and death inevitably followed. Today, some people won’t even enter this particular building because it is feared to be haunted, cursed… or both.

Today we're calling back to an episode of the first season of ArtCurious to talk about another potentially cursed locale in Venice, Italy: the so-called Casino of the Spirits.

Episode #81: Cursed Art: Velázquez's Rokeby Venus (Season 9, Episode 5)

Episode #81: Cursed Art: Velázquez's Rokeby Venus (Season 9, Episode 5)

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 9: Eps. 77-83

In our ninth season, in a topic suggested by you, our listeners, we’re uncovering the backstory behind some of the world’s most famed “cursed” objects in art, architecture, and archaeology. Today, we’re continuing with the ArtCurious debut of one of the greatest Spanish painters of all time—and his controversial painting that, some say, has driven people mad: Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.

Episode #80: Cursed Art: Saint-Gaudens's Adams Memorial, and "Black Aggie" (Season 9, Episode 4)

Episode #80: Cursed Art: Saint-Gaudens's Adams Memorial, and "Black Aggie" (Season 9, Episode 4)

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 9: Eps. 77-83

In our ninth season, in a topic suggested by you, our listeners, we’re uncovering the backstory behind some of the world’s most famed “cursed” objects in art, architecture, and archaeology. Today, we’re continuing with a highlight of American Renaissance sculpture with an “unauthorized” copy that chills many visitors: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Adams Memorial, and the so-called “Black Aggie.”

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #44, Shock Art: Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son (Season 4, Episode 5)

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #44, Shock Art: Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son (Season 4, Episode 5)

Jennifer Dasal
CURIOUS CALLBACK

Works that we take for granted today as masterpieces, or as epitomes of the finest of fine art, could also have been considered ugly, of poor quality, or just bad when they were first made. With the passage of time comes a calm and an acceptance. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are many works peppered throughout art history that were straight-up shocking to the public when they were first presented decades, or even hundreds of years ago.

Today's work of "shock art:" Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son.

Episode #44: Shock Art: Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son (Season 4, Episode 5)

Episode #44: Shock Art: Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son (Season 4, Episode 5)

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 4: Eps. 40-46

Works that we take for granted today as masterpieces, or as epitomes of the finest of fine art, could also have been considered ugly, of poor quality, or just bad when they were first made. With the passage of time comes a calm and an acceptance. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are many works peppered throughout art history that were straight-up shocking to the public when they were first presented decades, or even hundreds of years ago.

Today's work of "shock art:" Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son.

Episode #23: Combat Artists of WWII (Season 2, Episode 3)

Episode #23: Combat Artists of WWII (Season 2, Episode 3)

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 2: Eps. 21-31

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.

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #5: Death and Disaster, Warhol and Weegee

CURIOUS CALLBACK: Episode #5: Death and Disaster, Warhol and Weegee

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 1: Eps. 1-20

Death has always been a part of art history. That's one of the beautiful things about art-- it can detail and document and celebrate every facet of our existence. And so much of the great art that we know and love today works in the capacity to stave off one of the terrible side effects death-- being forgotten. Portraits, stone monuments, ancient coins-- they all aim to ensure that the subjects depicted will be remembered and revered for all eternity.

But Andy Warhol’s take on mortality wasn't about memorializing. He instead focused on the direct causes of death, or the aftermath of a terrible accident. His series, Death and Disaster, is one of the most well-known and polarizing of his career. But Warhol wasn't the first artist to focus on the everyday tragedy of death as a subject to quite this revealing and exploitative extent. No, that honor might very well belong to someone else-- an immigrant photographer working in Manhattan in the 1930s and 1940s.

In this episode, we discover the subject matter and motivations behind Andy Warhol's Death and Disaster series, and relate them to the work of the greatest crime scene photographer in history, Weegee.

Episode #18: Diagnosis: Art History

Episode #18: Diagnosis: Art History

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 1: Eps. 1-20

Over the centuries, there have been numerous examples of fine artists creating works of art that deliberately work with and within contemporaneous medical thought, portraying people with particular ailments or diseases. But what about if we turn that concept around a little bit? What happens when those in the medical field turn to paintings or sculptures from the past and retroactively investigate the health of the individuals depicted therein? What happens when art history turns into a diagnosis?

Episode #17: The Casino of the Spirits

Episode #17: The Casino of the Spirits

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 1: Eps. 1-20

Venice-- it's the most serene and beautiful city in Italy, and possibly the whole world. But Venice at night-- all darkened and quiet-- takes up the most space in my imagination. I seriously love the depictions of Venice as enigmatic, shadowy, and even dangerous. Without cars or streetlights or other modern comforts, you might feel like you’ve stepped back in time and that around any given corner, you could find… anything. All of this lends Venice this air of inscrutability and mystery. And over time, locals and visitors alike have reveled in this sensation as fodder for myth-making and storytelling. Some stories really stick, lasting for centuries and becoming embedded into the city itself, through its buildings, monuments, and specific locations. And there’s one building that has had plenty of legends built around it. This particular elegant structure had an illustrious past, having once been a meeting place where Italian Renaissance artists discussed their craft, caroused, and gambled. But it’s also the location where relationships soured, crimes were committed, and death inevitably followed. Today, some people won’t even enter this particular building because it is feared to be haunted, cursed… or both.

Episode #13: Diego and Frida, Part 2

Episode #13: Diego and Frida, Part 2

Jennifer Dasal
SEASON 1: Eps. 1-20

Glamour. Curiosity. Excitement. A love story for the ages. Such are the types of descriptors that you hear when you ponder the life and love of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Truly, in the pantheon of great artistic relationships, they are one of the top couples out there. And they had the great fortune, or whatever you want to call it, of living their exciting lives in front of the camera, as well as on canvas. Google them, and all kinds of lovey-dovey images come up-- images of Diego nuzzling Frida, images of them kissing, of her embracing him around his wide middle section. But what some people neglect, or possibly even forget, is that their relationship was by no means perfect. There were great ups, of course, but the downs? Incredible. Even Diego Rivera himself was aware of this fact, later writing, quote, “If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait.” Harsh words. But would they always be that way?

Episode #7: Was Walter Sickert Actually Jack the Ripper? PART TWO

Episode #7: Was Walter Sickert Actually Jack the Ripper? PART TWO

Jennifer Dasal

Back in 2002, I was browsing a new releases table at my local bookstore when a particular book caught my eye. It seemed like yet another crime novel, one among hundreds. And so, I moved on, until I saw the subtitle of the book: Jack the Ripper: Case Closed. In it, the author released a bombshell statement: she had purportedly solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity, which had evaded researchers, historians, and police for over one hundred years.

Jack the Ripper, she said, was the English painter Walter Sickert.

If you are just tuning in to the ArtCurious Podcast for the first time, please stop and listen to Episode #6 to get the backstory on Jack the Ripper's crimes.

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