ArtCurious Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode #8: What Happened to the Amber Room? (Season 1, Episode 8) Nov 14, 2016

Show notes

One of the most awe-inspiring sights in and around St. Petersburg, Russia, is the Catherine Palace, a rococo summer residence for the imperial family of yore. Up until World War II, The Catherine Palace housed something so incredible, so coveted, and so gorgeous that for hundreds of years, travelers fro all over the world flocked to admire it, referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." And then, in the early 1940s with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, this priceless creation was stolen. And to this day, it has still never been found.

What happened to the Amber Room?

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The Mystery of the Nazis and the Vanished Amber Room

Could Long-Lost Amber Room Be Stashed in a Nazi Bunker in Poland?

A Brief History of the Amber Room

Mystery of the Amber Room: Video

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Episode #7: Was Walter Sickert Actually Jack the Ripper? PART TWO (Season 1, Episode 7) Oct 31, 2016

Show notes

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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Portrait of a Killer: 6 Chilling Jack the Ripper Theories

Patricia Cornwell Says She Has "Cracked" the Jack the Ripper Mystery

Does this Painting by Walter Sickert Reveal the Identity of Jack the Ripper?

Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper? Ridiculous! He was Actually Dracula

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Episode #6: Was Walter Sickert Actually Jack the Ripper? PART ONE (Season 1, Episode 6) Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

Much was made of crime in Victorian London. The Victorians were terrified of the lower-classes, particularly down-and-out men living in the crowded outskirts of the city who, they thought, were lurking in the shadows, just waiting for the opportunity to arise for a well-timed theft, brawl, or even worse. Life, for most, was hard. But in 1888, Londoners clamoring for a bit of excitement to spice up the drudgery of their lives got far more than they bargained for. They got weeks of abject terror surrounding a madman who slaughtered women in London's East End... who was never identified or caught. And more than 100 years later, we are still no closer to really identifying one of the most terrible killers of all time.

Or are we?

In this first half of our special two-part Halloween episode, we are going to delve into a theory that identifies Jack the Ripper as the English painter Walter Sickert. And come back next week to hear the second half of our show and see images of Sickert's work.

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Want even MORE information? Check out the links below:

BBC History of Jack the Ripper

How Jack the Ripper Worked

FBI Case File on Jack the Ripper

http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/

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Episode #5: Death and Disaster, Warhol and Weegee (Season 1, Episode 5) Oct 13, 2016

Show notes

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 extend. That honor might very well belong to someone else: an immigrant photographer working in Manhattan in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Weegee as Witness

The Original Nightcrawler

Weegee's Day at the Beach

Art Portfolio: Weegee

Death and Death and Death by Warhol

Andy Warhol, the Death and Disaster Series and Prestige

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Episode #4: The Problem of Michelangelo's Women (Season 1, Episode 4) Sep 26, 2016

Show notes

There are lots of questions that come up in every art history classroom. We hear them over and over again. What is art, really, and how can you define it? Why is the Mona Lisa smiling? What happened to the Winged Victory's arms? And then there's one that you'll hear, or that you'll even think yourself, especially if you are a fan or scholar of Renaissance art. Why, people ask. Why are Michelangelo's women so... un-womanly?

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Jill Burke's blog: Men With Breasts (Or Why Are Michelangelo's Men So Muscular?) Part 1

Jill Burke's blog: Men With Breasts (Or Why Are

Michelangelo's Men So Muscular?) Part 2

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Episode #3: The Semi-Charmed Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (Season 1, Episode 3) Sep 12, 2016

Show notes

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.

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Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun's memoirs

She Painted Marie Antoinette (and Escaped the Guillotine)

The Praise and Prejudices Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun Faced in her Exceptional 18th-Century Career

Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France

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Episode #2: Was Van Gogh Accidentally Murdered? (Season 1, Episode 2) Aug 29, 2016

Show notes

Vincent Van Gogh's suicide is a huge part of the mythology surrounding him: as much as the famous tale of the cut-off ear is. This so-called "tortured genius," it is said, was so broken down by life and failure that he had no choice but to end his life. Right? But in 2011, two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors published a book titled Van Gogh: The Life that stunned the art world. Therein, Gregory White Smith and Stephen Naifeh state that the artist didn't actually commit suicide.

No, they say: he was actually murdered.

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Want even MORE information? Check out the links below:

Van Gogh Museum: 125 Questions

Van Gogh Museum: The End of a Difficult Road

Vincent Van Gogh's Letters available online in their entirety

CBS News: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh (video)

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Episode #1: Is the Mona Lisa a Fake? (Season 1, Episode 1) Aug 10, 2016