Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Latest Episodes:

Margaret Shepherd | Learn American Calligraphy Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

This week I interviewed Margaret Shepherd, a calligraphy artist and author. She has written several books, but her latest is Learning American Calligraphy. As she explains in the interview, calligraphy is an art form with a rich history all around the world.

Check these links for more information:

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

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The Rubik's Cube | Work of Art and an Art Medium Mar 08, 2024

Show notes

The Rubik's Cube is a fun puzzle toy, but some have begun looking at it as a medium to create pixelated masterpieces. Learn a little bit about Erno Rubik, his cube, and a young artist using it in a way Rubik never anticipated. Daniella Chaim is a teenager making sophisticated works by solving and meticulously arranging hundreds of Rubik's Cubes. See her work on Instagram

The math to figure out how many possible permutations there are on a Rubik's Cube:

(1/2) * (8! x 3⁷) * (12! x 2¹¹) = 43,252,003,274,489,856,000

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

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Artist Interview | Herb Williams Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Herb Williams is an incredibly talented sculptor bringing crayons to a whole new dimension. I sat down to talk to Williams about his background, his artistic influences, and exactly how and why he uses crayons to sculpt. He shared his memories of making art as a child as well as his experience working in a foundry making lost wax castings before he decided to pursue a literal dream of making sculptures out of crayons.

If the name Herb Williams sounds familiar, you may recall I talked about him in my crayon episode of Art Smart. I mentioned that I am writing an article for The Art of Education University's magazine about Williams, Stark and DesLongchamp (probably to be released late March or possibly in April). In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Stark or DesLongchamp, check out my Art Smart episodes about paper and markers respectively. I also did an episode of Who ARTed about Tom DesLongchamp back in December of 2023.

For more from Herb Williams, check out his website and follow him on Instagram @herbwilliamsart

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quick Announcements & The Unbelievable Story of Han van Meegeren Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

The late 1930s were a rough time in Europe. Nazis were on the rise, and museums began hiding their most treasured works or even shipping them off to safe locations. As all of these works were floating around in the art world and many pieces being hidden, Hans van Meegeren emerged as an art dealer with some lost Vermeers. As I explained in the previous episode about the Vermeer stolen from the Isabella Steward Gardner museum, there aren’t a lot of Vermeer paintings and much of his biography is unknown. There are some historians who believe Vermeer studied under an artist who was heavily influenced by Caravaggio.

Van Meegeren was celebrated for bringing the world the gift of these lost Caravaggio influenced Vermeer paintings. The critics loved the paintings and they loved Van Meegeren for discovering these lost works. He sold them for huge amounts and over just a few years amassed a fortune of about $30 million in today’s money. The thing is Van Meegeren would sell to anyone with money, including the Nazis. Hermann Goering, Hitler's vice chancellor was an art lover. He particularly loved the Vermeer painting he got from Van Meegeren. In the 1940s, the allies came knocking to ask why Han van Meegeren was doing business with the Nazis. Now whatever they expected to hear as his response, I guarantee they were surprised. Van Meegeren declared that he deserved to be treated as a hero for his dealings with the Nazis because all of the works he sold them were fakes. He claimed that by selling and trading these forgeries he was able to get 137 authentic Dutch masterpieces from the Nazis. It was an interesting defense, that he was not a war criminal but simply forger. It would be hard for anyone to feel sympathy for the victims of this crime but most found it too hard to believe.

Check out the article 6 Seedy Parts of the Art World Art Educators Love to Teach

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keith Haring | DJ Dog (encore) Feb 29, 2024

Show notes

Keith Haring is one of my absolute favorite artists because he was earnest and direct in his paintings. In his works, he would reduce complicated messages to clear and catchy slogans. He used bright colors and dancing figures to make art that was fun but also sought to make the world a better place.

In 1978, Haring moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts, where he studied painting along with semiotics. He also experimented with video and performance. Focus on performance made him more conscious of movement in his painting. He said he moved to NY because he wanted intensity in his life and in his art. He was inspired by hip-hop and the club scene where all kinds of people would come together to dance and have a good time. At his gallery openings, he would often have a DJ bringing the energy and movement to a venue not typically known for that vibe, and even after his work sold in prestigious galleries around the world, he continued to make chalk drawings on subway platforms and selling affordable prints in the Pop Shop because he firmly believed that art is for everybody.

My guest this week is Tim Bogatz host of Art Ed Radio from The Art of Education University. Here are his links:

Art Ed Radio: https://theartofeducation.edu/podcasts/behind-the-scenes-of-the-art-room-makeover-ep-399/

The Art of Education University: https://theartofeducation.edu/

AOEU Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjHIXlDbceMVJwfuHLJ0QISPKtSJO_ACZ

Related episodes:

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Klaus Nomi

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec | At The Moulin Rouge Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was associated with the Moulin Rouge since it first opened in 1891. He was captivated by the unique spirit of the club where people of all walks of life would mingle and enjoy the festivities. Of course it probably also helped that the nightclub’s owner bought Lautrec’s Equestrian painting to hang in the foyer. That painting was one of Lautrec’s many works depicting the circus with an active and exciting composition showing the performers in action. It seems fitting for the Moulin Rouge which was known for it’s active performances and circus like atmosphere. In addition to being the birthplace of the high energy can can dance, The Moulin Rouge boasted some other wild innovations including building a dance floor for patrons to enjoy dancing along as the spirit moved them, and there was even an elephant on the premises in the garden.

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gustave Eiffel | The Eiffel Tower Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

The Eiffel Tower was by far the largest structure built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Eiffel was an entrepreneur and he had two engineers working with him to plan the iron tower, but not everyone was on board with the design. Audiences today may be surprised to hear that many Parisians thought the design was an eyesore and a blight on their beautiful city. The architect Stephen Sauvestre was commissioned to work on the design to make it less ugly. He drafted arches, glass-walled halls on every level, stonework around the base, and other ornamental details throughout the structure. Ultimately they stripped it down to a more utilitarian structure but they kept his idea of arches at the base. The form of the tower is largely determined by the engineers' calculations to cut down on wind resistance. The primary resistance came from writers and artists who criticized the tower throughout its construction. I think my favorite description came from Francois Coppee who called it “this mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed.” Of course, this criticism faded as the world’s fair began and the tower was a huge hit. Over 2 million visitors came to marvel at it. While it did prove successful, the Eiffel tower was not intended to be a permanent fixture in the city. It was built to wow visitors in the fair and then to be torn down later. Eiffel only had a permit to have the structure stand for 20 years.

The idea that the tower would be temporary provided an interesting opportunity for another sort of creative visionary. A truly remarkable con artist named Victor Lustig sold the tower for scrap… two times.

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salvador Dali | The Persistence of Memory (encore) Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

Salvador Dali's most famous painting is The Persistence of Memory from 1931. The painting is surprisingly small just 9 ½ by 13 inches or slightly larger than the average sheet of paper. It is one of the most widely recognized and referenced images of the surrealist movement. For those who don’t know it by name, you will likely recognize the description of clocks melting in the desert. The melting of clocks much like the ambiguous figure in the middle of the composition references a metamorphosis. Things are in a state of flux. Ants crawl all over the clocks like fruit left to rot on the ground. Dali referred to this work describing time as a soft cheese and yet with all of the absurdity, there are realistic elements drawn from the landscape of his home in Spain. There is an unsettling mix of the real and absurd which served as a device surrealist artists would use to call into question the rational world and whether things truly are as hard and fast as we might at first perceive them to be. The clocks melt because even time, like all things, is relative and malleable.

Other episodes to check out:

Art Smart - Surrealism

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jean-Honore Fragonard | The Swing Feb 25, 2024

Show notes

Jean-Honore Fragonard’s painting, The Swing is one of those rare pieces that feels so immediately accessible it has begun to make the leap from the museum gallery wall to pop culture. Early in the immensely popular Disney movie Frozen, the character of Anna jumps up in front of the painting to mimic the expression of the woman on the swing. It was a moment that portrayed Anna as spontaneous and caught up in the moment but also foreshadowed a love interest with perhaps less than noble intentions. This is a great example of a Rococo artwork as the angles create a sense of movement and the spotlight on the central figure feels like a continuation of the high drama of the Baroque, but the Rococo was a bit more frivolous and self-indulgent. In this painting, we see a woman riding on a swing inside a private garden. It was a space where the aristocrats might be more at ease to let loose and have a bit of fun away from the strict confines of polite society. Fragonard was commissioned to make this painting which was kept in a private cabinet for only his patron and close friends to enjoy.

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johannes Vermeer | Woman Holding a Balance Feb 24, 2024

Show notes

Vermeer created stunning works and he is widely celebrated as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. This painting, Woman Holding a Balance is a work intended to encourage temperance and moderation being mindful that divine judgment is looming in the end.

Related episodes:

The Unbelievable Story of Han van Meegeren

Jan van Eyck | The Arnolfini Portrait

Arts Madness 2024 links:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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