Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Latest Episodes:

Yves Klein | Leap Into the Void Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

This week we are looking at Yves Klein and his famous photograph, Leap Into the Void, from 1960. Klein had a short but highly influential career as he pushed the boundaries of what could be considered art. He made a symphony of a single note, used humans as paint brushes, and even patented his own color.

My Guest this week is Tim Bogatz, host of Art Ed Radio from The Art of Education University. I have listened to Art Ed Radio for years, just as I have utilized the resources from AOEU and I highly recommend all my fellow art teachers listen, read and learn from Tim and AOEU.

Listen to Art Ed Radio: https://theartofeducation.edu/podcasts/how-you-can-gamify-your-classroom-ep-320/

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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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Katsushika Hokusai | The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa (encore) Sep 01, 2023

Show notes

Katsushika Hokusai is best known for The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa, part of his series of 36 Views of Mount Fuji. His family was in the mirror business, but Hokusai showed a proclivity for art starting at a young age. When he was 14 he started apprenticing as a wood carver. He spent 4 years carving wood blocks to use as stamps for printmaking. He then went on to study under artists to produce his own designs. His first prints were of actors from the Kabuki theater in 1779. Some years later, he would shift his focus to landscapes.

Related Episodes:

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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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Roberto Matta | The Earth is a Man Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

Roberto Matta was a Chilean born artist whose life and work transcended boundaries. He was always looking to explore new ideas, push his work further and to astonish. As he said, “A landscape is at peace whenever there is no visible catastrophe and yet ecologically it is violent and devouring. One must grasp what lies behind appearance.”

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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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Shiva Nataraja | Shiva the Lord of the Dance Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

In this depiction of Shiva we see the natural rhythms to everything in the cosmos. Birth and death, creation and destruction are symply phases all things will go through. In this bronze work from 11th century India during the Chola period, we see Shiva in a dancing pose. He is surrounded by a ring of flames. Fire is an interesting force as it can be tremendously destructive and dangerous, but simultaneously if it is handled properly, fire can provide warmth and light. As the flames dance, they transform the material world around them sometimes to our benefit and sometimes to our peril. In this piece, Shiva is surrounded by flames representing the eternal cycle of creation, preservation and destruction.

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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 Mona Lisa Vanishes Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

Lisa Gherardini was not born to fame and fortune. In fact, her family had fallen on hard times as wars laid waste to their land. She was an unlikely subject for a prominent artist.

Leonardo da Vinci was a second-class member of his family. He was acknowledged by his father but barred from the family trade and left to make his own way in the world. He was smart and talented but bounced around pursuing interests in science and engineering as well as the arts. He was notorious for trying the patience of his patrons taking excruciatingly long to complete a job if he finished it at all. He was an unlikely candidate to become a prominent artist.

Vincenzo Peruggia was a humble tradesman. He had worked at the Louvre putting artworks behind glass in an effort to protect them. He actually built the box to protect The Mona Lisa. He was an unlikely culprit for the greatest art heist of all time.

The crime was investigated by the greatest detectives of the day, but nobody could imagine the man with a postcard of the Mona Lisa on his mantle had the real thing tucked away in his humble apartment for two years.

This week we’re talking about the highly improbable people and events that turned a lovely Renaissance portrait into the most famous painting in the world.

My guest this week is Nicholas Day, author of the new book, The Mona Lisa Vanishes (coming to book stores September 5, 2023)

Order The Mona Lisa Vanishes on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mona-Lisa-Vanishes-Legendary-Celebrity/dp/0593643844

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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 Lascaux Cave Art Aug 18, 2023

Show notes

On September 12, 1940, a dog fell down a fox hole and four boys went in after it. They descended into a cavern with a makeshift lamp and hopes of finding their dog, but they found way more creatures than they were expecting. In this episode, we explore the caves of Lascaux, France and some of the most famous prehistoric art in the world.

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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

Hahn v Duveen | The Case of the American Leonardo Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

An artist’s skillful application of paint will make an artwork good, but a good story makes that artwork great. In 2010, a painting went on auction at Sotheby’s and sold for $1.5 million and I would argue that price is not because of the image, or the artist, but rather the story.

Harry Hahn was an American pilot fighting in World War 1. He was fortunate to not only survive the brutal war, but also while serving overseas, he met the love of his life. He married a French woman named Andree Lardoux. Her aunt, the Comtesse Louise de Montaut decided to give the young couple one of the old paintings in her collection as a wedding present. This gift seemed particularly special as a French connoisseur by the name of George Sortais had examined the painting in 1916 and he had declared it to be the work of none other than Leonardo da Vinci.

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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 Peace Symbol Aug 11, 2023

Show notes

In November of 1957, a small committee was formed. February 17, 1958, they held the first public meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. That same year, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament asked the artist Gerald Holtom to create a symbol for the movement. The CND has been at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK and claims to be Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaign. Holtom’s design though has become one of the most widely recognized symbols on the planet. I am talking of course of the peace sign.

More than one peace sign exists. There is a hand gesture comprised of a thumb holding down the ring finger and pinky as the index and middle fingers are splayed to form a “v” In some bit of irony, that hand gesture started on the battlefields of World War II. Allied soldiers held up the gesture signaling “v for victory” and sometime later, anti-war protesters adopted the gesture as a peace sign.

The universal symbol developed by Gerald Holtom though, is the other peace sign, the one consisting of a circle with a vertical line down the center and two diagonal lines forming an inverted v shape going from the center of the vertical line down to the bottom portion of the circle. Gerald Holtom made line drawings representing the flag semaphores of N and D for nuclear disarmament then put it into a circle to represent the globe and because let’s face it, the roundness looks nice.

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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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Diego Velazquez | Las Meninas Aug 07, 2023

Show notes

Diego Velazques was one of the most significant painters of Spain's Golden Age in the 17th century. He was a master of both portraiture and genre painting, Las Meninas is a sort of mix of both. We see people who seem rather formally dressed by today’s standards, but the subject is also, it was a peak behind the curtain of royal life. Withing the work, the first focal point would be the little girl, the infanta margarita, daughter of the king and queen of spain. She is dramatically lit from the side by light streaming in from the window. The top half of the composition is essentially in shadow, and we see her looking out at us, the viewers. Diego Velazquez included himself in the scene as he stands before his giant canvas. Within this oil on canvas painting, we see a representation of a painter working on canvas. Velazquez also seems to break the fourth as he looks out at the viewer. There is a figure standing in the doorway in the back of the composition. The strong light in the doorway pulls our focus there as a secondary focal point, and that figure seems to be caught in motion and again, he looks out at us, the viewers.

In this episode, I referenced Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait. To learn more about that, check out my previous episode:

Jan van Eyck | The Arnolfini Portrait

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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

Rene Magritte | The Son of Man Aug 04, 2023

Show notes

Rene Magritte's painting, Son of Man, is among the most famous images of the Surrealist Movement. It is one of the few artworks that transcends the museum and has become a part of pop culture. Actually technically it isn’t even in the museums. Son of Man is privately owned and rarely seen on public display, but it has been referenced in books, movies like Stranger than Fiction and The Thomas Crown Affair, tv shows like The Simpsons, music videos by the likes of Michael Jackson. Of course listeners of this show no doubt recognize that the painting was also the inspiration for the greatest pop culture image of all time, my podcast cover art.

Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty 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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