Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Latest Episodes:

Martha Graham | Steps in the Streets Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

Martha Graham was a pioneer of modern dance. She was 17 years old when she saw her first dance performance by Ruth St. Denis. A few years later she began studying at Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. In 1922, she danced in a silent film that tried to synchronize the live sound with the film. Basically, they had the dancer and conductor on film and the live orchestra would follow the conductor on the film to synch everything up.

She left Denishawn in 1923. Her goal was to make dance reveal the inner man, and make something about the human experience rather than simply entertainment. Growing up the child of a psychiatrist feels like it was relevant here. I mean surely there would be some sort of Freudian interpretation of the daughter of an alienist transforming the field of dance into an exploration of the inner workings of humanity

See Graham's piece, Steps in the Streets on Youtube

My guest for this episode was Sean Roschman, director for Niko8.

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As always you can find images of the work being discussed at www.WhoARTedPodcast.com and of course, please leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. You might hear it read out on the show.

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The Pyramids at Giza Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

The great pyramids constructed by ancient Egyptians at Giza are the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still remaining. These massive stone monuments have left people awestruck for thousands of years. True to the distinction as wonders of the ancient world, people have wondered and speculated about how the great pyramids were constructed pretty much as long as they have been around. While some conspiracy theorists like to talk about aliens because they cannot conceive of a world in which ancient people could figure out how to build a pile, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the pyramids were built by people. Archaeologists have found evidence of encampments around the pyramids suggesting that there was a group of skilled craftsmen permanently stationed to work while crews of around 2000 workers would be brought in seasonally.

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Charuvi Agrawal | 26,000 Bells of Hanuman (encore) Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

This is an encore presentation of my episode on Charuvi Agrawal, the contemporary Indian artist. In 2014, she created a massive sculpture of Hanuman using 26,000 bells. I think what I love most about the piece is the way that her work engages the audience. Not only can we see, the piece, but people can touch it, and hear the bells ring out. The audience is not only a viewer, but a participant.

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Frida Kahlo | The Two Fridas Aug 19, 2022

Show notes

Frida Kahlo was an interesting artist. I first became familiar with her work when I was a teenager after watching a bio pic in an art house theater. She has become an icon of not only art history, but also pop culture. When a person becomes an icon in the popular imagination, it can become a challenge to tell the woman from the myth. If I were to summarize Kahlo in one sentence, I would say she was a feminist surrealist painter berst known for her unflinching self portraits.

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Phil Hansen | Cobain (Goodbye Art 2) Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Phil Hansen. New full episodes will be coming starting in September. In the meantime, you can find new episodes of Art Smart on your favorite podcast app every Wednesday, and I will be publishing new mini-episodes on Fridays.

For images and resources, go to www.WhoArtEdPodcast.com

For this week's episode I spoke with Kelly Beach about the contemporary American artist, Phil Hansen. The specific work being discussed was Hansen's piece Cobain, from his Goodbye Art 2 series. Hansen's work focuses largely on the creative process and overcoming obstacles. Hansen himself struggled with a tremor that hindered his artistic career until he learned to "embrace the shake" and change his methods, change his mindset and opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

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Louis Daguerre | The World's First Photobomb (Encore) Aug 12, 2022

Show notes

The history of photography has some really interesting and surprising facts. For example, the camera is about 2000 years older than photography. The earliest known camera obscuras were documented as far back as the 4th century BCE in China, while photography didn‘t really come about until the 18th Century. In the early 19th century, Louis Daguerre was working hard to improve the photographic method. His innovations helping to develop a latent image drastically cut down on exposure times making photography much more practical. Of course while I say it drastically cut down exposure times, it cut the times down from hours to minutes, but it was still too long to be practical for most people to be captured in a photo. The first photograph of people actually happened by accident as one man‘s decision to get his shoes shined in 1838 led to his likeness being captured in an image that would make history.

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Jim Davis | Garfield Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. My guest for this episode was Lindsey Little, creator of the Oni Girl comic. Here is her link tree for all the places to find her and her work https://linktr.ee/OniGirl

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Jean-Honore Fragonard | The Swing Aug 05, 2022

Show notes

The Swing, also sometimes called The Happy Accidents of The Swing, is a Rococo painting by Jean-Honore Fragonard. It is intended to be light-hearted and fun as it depicts people in a care free moment on a swing in the garden. Interestingly, while today's audiences would likely see riding on a swing as a wholesome activity, centuries ago it was considered to be a bit of a risque activity as clothing would move in the breeze giving glimpses of a lady's ankle. In fact, this painting was commissioned by an aristocrat who wanted a painting of himself looking up his mistress's skirt.

For those listeners in high school, The Swing is on the AP Art History required artworks list. You can find more episodes covering those works on my Spotify playlist called AP Art History Cram Session.

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Matt Groening | Homer Simpson (encore) Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

This is an encore presentation. I wanted to start 2021 with something fun, so I decided to do an episode about a classic episode of The Simpsons. In season 10 episode 19 titled Mom and Pop Art, Homer becomes an outsider artist. While much of the humor is derived from the premise that Homer Simpson is inept and could never be a decent artist, but I thought it would be fun to consider what kind of an artist Homer really is. His first sculpture was created accidentally from a failed attempt to build a backyard barbecue pit. After tastemakers declared the failed grill to be an artistic triumph, Homer leans in to his new career as an artist. Of course after the initial success that came so easily, Homer discovers that maintaining an art career is difficult as he presents a series of works that are considered too derivative of his earlier work as they all had the same feel behind them. This actually is one of the least true criticisms I observed in the satirical look at the art world. While in the Simpson‘s world art critics are fickle and looking to be constantly shocked, in reality one of the most sure paths to success is for an artist to develop a signature style so their work is easily identified to patrons. Consistency is crucial to an artist‘s marketability. Still Homer‘s falling out of favor led to a rare bit of introspection and growth for the character. Marge guides him through the museum and Homer applies his learning to creating one final masterpiece - The Grand Canals of Springfield. If you set aside the reckless destruction of property and the fact that such an act would have wreaked havoc endangering thousands of people and animals, it was actually a fairly interesting work. Ultimately, I consider Homer to be most interesting as a work of art rather than as an artist, but through any lens I find him delightful and thought provoking.

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What's up with ROY G BIV? (encore) Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

This is an encore presentation of my very first Fun Fact Friday mini episode.

This week's Fun Fact is that the ROY G BIV model of a rainbow is somewhat arbitrary. The only reason people slip indigo between blue and violet is because Sir Isaac Newton wanted to have seven colors in order to match the musical scale.

If you are interested in learning more about color or the other elements of art, check out my other show, Art Smart which is available on all the major podcast apps.

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.

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