Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Heinrich Campendonk may not be a household name, but he was a part of some of the most influential groups of 20th century modernism. He was a part of The Blue Rider Group then a teacher at The Bauhaus. A few years ago, he grabbed headlines as Wolfgang Betracchi was caught trying to forge a Campendonk painting. Related episodes: Wolfgang Beltracchi | The Art of Fraud Bauhaus Parties Wassily Kandinsky Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wolfgang Beltracchi is possibly the most artful forgers ever to have gotten into the game. While most would create a forgery by meticulously copying every line, shape and color in a known masterpiece, Beltracchi studied the artist then made his own original compositions imagining what the artist would have painted. In this episode, I talked to my fellow art teacher and art crime enthusiast, Emily Fiedler. I showed her two works, one by Beltracchi, and one by Campendonk. I labeled them painting A and painting B to see if she could tell the authentic from the forgery. Look at the works: Painting A | Painting B If you love a good forgery story, check out my previous episode on The Unbelievable Story of Han van Meegeren Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kawaii is a Japanese word translating to something like "cute" or "adorable" but it is much more than that. While kawaii figures tug at the heartstrings with their big eyes and baby-like proportions making them seem helpless and vulnerable, kawaii can also represent a rebellious spirit. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It has been four years of exploring visual art in an audio medium. To mark the anniversary, I thought it would be nice to have a few of my podcast buddies like Tony Kresl, Tim Bogatz (host of Art Ed Radio from The Art of Education University) and Matthew Bliss (podcast host, editor and consultant) join me to share a few fun facts and interesting stories from art history. In this episode, we covered a bit about Leonardo da Vinci and The Mona Lisa, Salvador Dali, Wassily Kandinsky, Hilma af Klint, Jackson Pollock, and many more. Links to some of my podcast friends: The Art Explora Academy Airwave Media Art Ed Radio Matthew Bliss Learn more about some of the stories referenced in this episode: The Mona Lisa Vanishes (buy the book) Wassily Kandinsky Salvador Dali Christo and Jeanne-Claude Jackson Pollock Janet Sobel Jens Haaning The Scream Hilma af Klint Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bauhaus was a small but enormously influential art school in the 1930s. It was known for producing architecture and industrial design with clean lines, simple shapes and an emphasis on function. Still, when they weren't working on practical designs for functional art, they had wild, elaborate costume parties. Learn a bit about the Bauhaus. In a previous episode, I covered a bit more about Wassily Kandinsky, the influential abstract painter. Listen on Spotify Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hans Holbein the Younger painted The Ambassadors in 1533. It is a massive, life sized double portrait filled with symbolism that gives us insights into the political and religious upheaval of the day. Still today, it is probably best known for the anamorphic skull cutting across the floor in the composition. In the Ambassadors, Holbein presents the symbol of mortality as a specter that looms ever present though sometimes difficult to make sense of. It can feel like an odd intrusion disrupting a picture carefully and beautifully constructed but if we shift our view a little we can see that nothing lasts forever. Life and the world are constantly changing but there can be a beauty in that too if we can bring ourselves to look at it from the right perspective. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sugar skulls have been a popular decoration for Day of the Dead celebrations for hundreds of years now. Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a combination of Catholic traditions and indigenous Aztec customs going back hundreds of years. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Mulmer was born in 1832. For historical context, the oldest known Daguerrotype is from 1837, so Mulmer was born right around the same time as photography, and he loved the new medium, but started off as a hobbyist. Mulmer worked as a jewelry engraver, but in his spare time, he liked taking photographs of his family and friends. In 1860 though, he took a selfie that would change the course of his life. In his self portrait, he noticed something strange. There appeared to be a ghost behind him. It just so happened that his wife was a healing medium who would help people make contact with the spirits of dead loved ones. The spiritualist movement was quite popular in the late 19th century and William Mulmer had found a way to use the latest scientific technology to photograph spirits providing dramatic and compelling images as evidence to validate the seances. Learn more about early photography with these episodes of Who ARTed: The World's First Photobomb Louis Daguerre The Artist's Studio Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raku bowls are humble. They are hand formed starting from a flat, circular base and coils built up around the sides. The process results in each piece being unique with evidence of the artist’s hand in the creative process. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode gives a brief overview of the life of Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, and one of his most famous works, the fresco on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. I was joined once again, by my good friend, Chuck Hoff who teaches art at the middle school my students feed into. When he first commissioned the painting for the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel, Pope Julius II just wanted Michelangelo to paint the 12 apostles on the pendentives (a triangular architectural feature). Michelangelo was hesitant to take the job because he considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter. Also, Pope Julius II had hired Michelangelo to design his tomb and the two of them both had tempers and fought a lot during that project. He convinced the pope to give him free rein on the project along with a payment equivalent to about $600k today. The massive work basically illustrates The Book of Genesis over around 5300 square feet (500 square meters for those using logical measuring systems). The painting depicts the creation of Adam, the fall of man, the prophets, and the genealogy of Jesus. Contrary to popular belief, he did not paint laying on his back. He stood on the scaffolding, but don’t worry he was in physical discomfort during the entirety of the 4-year job. He stood craning his neck. He actually wrote a little poem about how painful it was including a little doodle in the margin illustrating it. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For today's mini episode, I thought it might be nice to change things up a little bit and cover the history of a medium rather than a specific artwork. Learn a little bit about pencils, what the numbers and letters mean, what is in the core of a pencil and how colored pencils differ from regular pencils. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Skipping ahead a few hundred years, the artist Xu Bing created Book from the Sky as a monumental print. It is brobably among the most ambitious, labor intensive, and useless books ever to be printed in China or anywhere else. He created 4,000 unique characters on wood blocks to print this massive "book" but while those characters look like Chinese writing, they are actually completely meaningless. A Book from the Sky is one of the required artworks for AP Art History. Check out my Spotify playlist, AP Art History Cram Session to learn about other artists and artworks from that curriculum. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Modernists said, “form follows function” focusing on how people will use a space, but Gehry focuses on how people will react to the space. His goal is to inspire, to make them feel. He talks about the challenge of creating feeling with inert materials. He says it is the movement that brings out a feeling. With his design in Bilbao, Spain, rather than simply designing a building to house a collection of some of the world’s most beautiful and inspiring art, Gehry made the building itself a work of art that inspires awe and wonder. The Guggenheim Bilbao is one of the required artworks for AP Art History. Check out my Spotify playlist, AP Art History Cram Session to learn about other artists and artworks from that curriculum. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart and 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is about Arthur Boyd the Australian painter known for his use of symbols from mythology to express his philosophical views. My guest this week was Matthew Bliss, a podcaster and producer. Check out his work at https://matthewbliss.net/from-my-home-to-yours Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Diego Rivera is less of a household name than his wife Frida Kahlo, but in the early 20th century, he was the more established artist. Rivera was born December 8th, 1886 in Guatajaunto Mexico. As a 3 year old, he was caught drawing on the walls, but instead of getting angry, his parents chose to encourage his creativity by hanging canvas and chalkboards on the walls. He would go through a lot of canvas in his life, but ultimately I suppose it was his work directly on the walls that he would come to be remembered for. The Detroit Industry Murals consists of 27 frescos. Rivera and his assistants painted the murals in just 8 months. They worked at a grueling pace routinely putting in 15 hour days without breaks. The work was said to have been so intense that Diego Rivera lost 100 pounds during this time. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay was painted in 1963 as Frankenthaler had refined her soak and stain process. While Mountains and Sea was made with diluted oil paints, The Bay is acrylic on unprimed canvas. She had found that using acrylics gave her greater control over the viscosity or how fluid the paint was. As I look at The Bay, the title indicates a landscape and the brightness, the organic shapes of blue and green give me a sense of a Bay, but it feels like it is more about a happy, contented sort of tone. There is movement, but it seems gentle like sitting out on a boat drifting in calm waters. The Bay represents a different sort of take on Abstract Expressionism. While many followed Jackson Pollock’s and Willem de Kooning’s aggressive and agsty style, Helen Frankenthaler’s color fields are more gentle and at peace. Her work was a breath of fresh air showing that painting could reduce art to fundamental elements in line with esoteric modernist philosophy and still be beautiful and joyous. Related episodes: Jackson Pollock Diego Rivera The Bay from 1963 is one of the required artworks for AP Art History. Check out my Spotify playlist, AP Art History Cram Session to learn about other artists and artworks from that curriculum. Check out my other podcasts Art Smart and 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few people know this, but Art used to be an Olympic event. Starting in the 1912 games, artists could win Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals in five categories of art. This is an encore presentation of my fun fact mini episode from season 2. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maria Martinez belonged to the Tewa-speaking Pueblo people, known for their rich artistic heritage. Pottery-making was deeply rooted in Puebloan culture, serving as a means of artistic expression and a reflection of their close connection with the natural world. Maria grew up watching her family members create pottery, learning the traditional techniques. Of course, we seldom talk about those who simply carry on a tradition. Maria Martinez and her husband Julian revolutionized pottery production and shared their methods with their community. In doing so, they raised the profile of pottery as an art form while helping others understand and appreciate their cultural heritage. If you would like to learn more about modern clay production, check out the clay episode of my other podcast, Art Smart. Art Smart | Clay Art Smart | Glaze This is one of many episodes I have created covering artists and artworks required for AP Art History. Check out my Spotify playlist AP Art History Cram Session to learn more Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1894, George Seurat began going out to an idyllic little island away from the urban center of Paris. It was a place where people of various classes would relax. While the image is of people at leisure, Seurat was anything but relaxed. He was a disciplined artist on a mission to create a work that would be significant in art history. He spent years developing this work. He made dozens of preparatory sketches to work out the composition and technique. While the 1890s was the heyday for Impressionists, Seurat was part of a new breed. Some consider him a post-impressionist or neo-Impressionist. Today his technique is called pointillism, but in his day, Seurat preferred the term divisionism. He was dividing the image into discrete bits, carefully painted, uniform dots of paint like pixels that make up our digital images. While his process was careful and hand-crafted, Seurat was fascinated by science. He developed his approach after reading the works of scientists like Michel Eugene Chevreul and Ogden Rood. One of the key concepts that Seurat latched onto had to do with how color is perceived in relation to its surroundings. Seurat read about the trouble restoring tapestries because they could not simply dye to match a piece, they had to account for surrounding colors. Seurat’s idea was that by dividing the image into discrete dots of color, the painter could arrange combinations that would heighten the contrast and make the colors more vibrant. Seurat wanted to make his work even more vibrant by painting a frame of colored dots around the perimeter of his painting and that was offset by a clean white painted frame. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: ArtCurious: Katsushika Oi Art Smart: Ukiyo-e Who ARTed: Blue 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Related episode: Rene Magritte | The False Mirror (full episode) 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Seidenberg is an incredible photographer and in this episode, I spoke with Steven Seidenberg and the writer, Carolyn White about a little-known bit of history in Post World War 2 Italy. His latest book The Architecture of Silence: Abandoned Lives of the Italian South documents the ruins of a failed policy that gave impoverished people a bit of land and housing without the infrastructure needed to sustain a community. The companion book Distant Voices: on Steven Seidenberg's Architecture of Silence is a collection of essays that help put it all into perspective with relevant historical context. Find Steven Seidenberg: ww.stevenseidenberg.com Links to buy the books: https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Silence-Abandoned-Italian-South/dp/8869658902/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1YOGKULHMU1C6&keywords=architecture+of+silence&qid=1687919169&s=books&sprefix=architecture+of+silence%2Cstripbooks%2C217&sr=1-3 https://www.amazon.com/DISTANT-VOICES-Seidenbergs-ARCHITECTURE-SILENCE/dp/8869658961/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32C3234K86US5&keywords=distant+voices+carolyn+white&qid=1687919234&s=books&sprefix=distant+voices+carolyn+whit%2Cstripbooks%2C144&sr=1-1 And a link to a recent piece on his work in Rome, documenting a migrant tent city that was destroyed in 2018. https://placesjournal.org/article/baobab-tent-city-in-rome/ 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alma Thomas was an amazing African American painter known for her abstract paintings with bold brush strokes that take on a mosaic quality. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In honor of Alphonse Mucha's birthday, I thought I would post an encore of my mini episode about the poster that catapulted him to fame. In December 1894, Alphonse Mucha just happened to be in the print shop checking some proofs for a friend, when in walked an actress, Sarah Bernhardt in need of posters for her upcoming play. All of the regular artists she worked with were off for the holidays leaving Mucha as her only option. It was a tremendous stroke of luck for both of them as Mucha created a stunning poster that not only flattered the actress, it caught the attention of collectors all around Paris. People were cutting the posters off of displays and bribing the poster hangers so they could get copies, and the Mucha style laid the foundation for Art Nouveau. Related episodes: Alphonse Mucha | Gismonda (full episode from season 1) Art Smart: Art Nouveau Check out my other podcasts 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This mini episode is about The Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts from ancient Egypt. To better understand the collection as well as the culture and mythology behind these works, I looked a little bit at the page showing the judgment of Hunefer, a high-ranking scribe and priest. I gave a quick shoutout to Abigail Green from CourseStorm.com who was kind enough to include me in her blog post listing The Best Art Podcasts for Arts Organizations, Educators and Creatives. Check out her list if you are looking for other art education related podcasts: https://www.coursestorm.com/blog/best-art-podcasts/ 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was asked to create an episode about how art affects the brain. I found there is quite a bit of research conducted by neuroscientists around the world indicating that engaging with the arts makes people smarter, happier, and healthier. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bulk of Olowe’s carvings seem to have been both decorative and functional artworks for the Yoruba kings and prominent families. One of his celebrated works for example is the veranda post that sits in the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. In that piece we see the elongated neck and oval faces that were a part of his signature style. Traditionally Yoruba artists used scale and proportion to indicate hierarchy. The more important a figure, the larger they are within the composition. The status of the king’s senior wife is shown by her size while the king is seated central to the post. His crown eye level to the viewer and the king sits with his feat up above the ground signifying his transcendent nature. His eyes are cast down expressing a contemplative mood as he looks down on the world beyond. The crown has four ancestral faces signifying the legitimacy of his royal lineage, the divine line and wisdom running through it. Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donatello’s statue of David, just like the story, seems straightforward and simple at first glance, but with great art, there is always more than meets the eye. His bronze statue of the boy who slayed the giant depicts a figure who seems young and vulnerable yet with confidence and a bit of swagger. This was the first life-sized, free-standing nude statue since antiquity. Donatello and his David were triumphant helping to usher in a re-birth of ancient style for the Italian Renaissance. Ironically, part of Donatello's innovation was borrowing from the ancient style. Like all great artists, he reached new heights standing on the shoulders of giants. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cirque du Soleil combines acrobatics, theater, music, and dance to create a magical experience that pushes the boundaries of our imagination and inspires the audience to rethink what is possible. There are no animals or ringmasters because Cirque does not seek to tame nature but rather to push boundaries and invites viewers to stand in awe. Performers undertake stunts that are dangerous and as spectators, we experience some vicarious fear for the performers' safety, but then a cathartic release and inspiration as they pull it off. Since it began, Cirque du Soleil has amazed about 180 million people. In this episode, I gave a shout-out to my good friend, Sean Roschman. He is an amazingly talented artist putting on the first show of his new company Niko8. For all my listeners in the Chicago area, if you enjoy modern dance, check out their show at the end of July. Details are at www.Niko8.com 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Machu Picchu would translate to “old mountain” but it isn’t that old. While stone ruins are often associated with ancient civilizations thousands of years old, Machu Picchu is relatively young having been built in the middle of the 15th century. Nestled high in the Andes mountains of Peru, this ancient Incan citadel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a bucket-list destination for travelers from around the globe. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jack Kirby created some of the biggest names in the golden age of comics including: Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk. He basically populated the Marvel Universe. In 1970 though he felt like he wasn't getting the credit he deserved there and left Marvel for DC. There he created a series, Fourth World which I imagine he thought would demonstrate his brilliance and make Marvel wish they hadn’t blown it with him. The series was a commercial flop so maybe not the great “I told you so” he likely envisioned as he left Marvel for their rival, but some of the New Gods from the series live on in the DC Universe. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Origami is the Japanese art of folded paper sculpture. It is a tradition that is basically as old as paper. In the 6th century CE, Buddhist monks brought paper from China to Japan. While origami has been practiced for hundreds of years, it has gone through some drastic changes in the way it was perceived by people. Early on when paper was really expensive and labor intensive to produce, origami was for the select few and for special occasions. As paper became more affordable, ordinary people made origami models as gifts or folding cards and envelopes for correspondence. It was used as I said to illustrate concepts like geometry in school and became associated with school children. For a long time, origami remained at a relatively low status dismissed as a children’s craft rather than fine art of a mature artist. Akira Yoshizawa probably elevated the art form more than anyone else. 1954 his first book was published Atarashii Origami Geijutsu (New Origami Art) this established the system of notation for origami folds which is basically the standard for origami instructions today. That same year, he founded the International Origami Center of Tokyo. I'm honored that Who ARTed is listed on FeedSpot's list of top podcasts for the classroom. Check out the others on their list: https://blog.feedspot.com/classroom_podcasts/?feedid=5246489 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Romare Bearden grew up during the Harlem Renaissance. He enlisted in the army during World War 2 and in addition to painting, he made collages, he wrote and he loved music. One of my favorite works of Bearden's is based on a Renaissance painting imagining the return of Odysseus. In his work, Bearden puts black people into classic mythology because representation matters and he wants a diverse audience to be able to truly embrace the work and see themselves in the story. I am proud Who ARTed is part of the media library for the Art Explora Academy. Check it out for tons of free resources to further your art education. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hilma Af Klint was making abstract paintings before Kandinsky and Mondrian. She was exploring automatic writing and drawing guided by the subconscious decades before the surrealists. The term avant-garde literally refers to those going ahead of the rest. Hilma Af Klint was among the greatest avant-garde artists in history. Hilma Af Klint’s long time in relative obscurity is partly due to the stipulations of her will. She stated that her works should not be shown until 20 years after her death. She was medium who said that her abstract paintings were guided by otherworldly entities. She was a part of a collective known as The Five and the women would hold seances which guided their artistic practices. Hilma Af Klint said her works could not be understood or appreciated until decades after her death because while most artists are chasing trends, Hilma Af Klint was using her intuition to create paintings that would blow the minds of future generations. My guest this week was Natalie for the podcast, Reframables. Click here for the link tree showing all the places you can find her podcast. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was early evening just a few minutes from closing time at the National Museum when suddenly the normally peaceful museum took on the aesthetic of an action movie. An armed intruder walked in yelling at the guards and patrons to be still and calm which I have to assume had the exact opposite effect. He had two accomplices already in the space and they apparently were trained on the guards. Meanwhile, the thieves detonated explosives in two cars parked in front of hotels across town. The thieves were working under the assumption that exploding cars would create panic and chaos drawing the attention of the police leaving fewer officers to chase after them. They also threw nails into the road to blow the tires on any police cars that tried to chase after them. Of course, it seems like a bit of overkill throwing out the nails to stop police cars because the thieves didn’t escape in a getaway car. The National Museum in Stockholm is next to the water, so they fled the scene in a speedboat. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yayoi Kusama is one of the most popular contemporary artists with her infinity rooms drawing massive crowds wherever they are installed. In the infinity rooms, the walls are covered in mirrors creating reflections of reflections that seem to go on forever. This idea of playing with reflections was a fixture in Kusama’s work pretty much from the start. As I covered in my previous episode about Yayoi Kusama, she grew up in Japan where her family owned a nursery. She was surrounded by plans and looked at nature around her imagining not only what was beyond the mountains in the landscape, but what was inside the plants, the rocks, the dirt. This is where we get her signature polka dots. She refers to the repeated dots as Infiniti nets, a visualization of the structures that make up all of the things in our world and even our universe. It seems fitting that in 1966, she created Narcissus Garden to catapult her career to the next level. The piece consisted of an installation of 1,500 reflective spheres. It feels both personal to Kusama and simultaneously generic as the woman who grew up at her family's garden nursery installed a garden of mass-produced mirrored spheres. In 1966, she accompanied the installation with a performance as she dressed in a gold kimono and sold the mirrored balls for $2 each. Check out my other podcasts 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this week's fun fact friday, you can learn about everyone's first and favorite modular building material Lego, and how in 2009 on man (with the help of corporate sponsors and a few thousand volunteers) built a livable house out of Lego complete with working plumbing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Impressionists are probably best known for their loose brush work, that painterly style that allows reminds us paint is not only a noun, but a verb. The Impressionists had great ideas and tremendous talents, but ideas and talent alone won’t pay the bills. When Caillebotte joined the movement, he not only learned from the other painters, he supported them. He was a good friend and engaged with them intellectually, being emotionally supportive and all that, but also financially supported a good number of them. He bought paintings from Degas, Renoir, Monet. He even paid the rent for Monet’s studio for some time. Related episodes: Claude Monet Auguste Renoir The World's first Photobomb 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in southern China had over 140 works stolen from their collection, but nobody noticed for years. This is because the thief replaced every item he stole… with his own paintings. Now some guy working in a museum quietly helping himself to the collection of artworks then replacing them with his own copies seems pretty strange and bold, but this next bit brings the story to next-level bananas territory. According to Xiao theft and forgery were rampant. He said he noticed that people were stealing his forgeries and replacing them with their forgeries. It kinda makes you wonder if he was getting the originals or if he was forging a copy of a forgery. I mean he did steal and copy work by Zang Daqian, a landscape and still-life painter who was also considered to be a master forger himself. Xiao plead guilty in court, but warned that the lax security was causing big problems for the university’s collection. He said that he noticed fakes in there from his first day on the job and obviously quite a few more of them popping up throughout his time there. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is an encore presentation of my episode about Satoshi Tajiri and Pokemon is one of the biggest games in modern history. For over 25 years, hundreds of millions of people around the world have enjoyed videogames, card games, cartoons, and movies. But how did it all get started? For that we need to go back a little further than the 25 years of Pokemon, back to the 1960s and 70s in Machida Tokyo Japan, and a little boy named Satoshi Tajiri. Even though Tokyo is obviously a big city, the area where Satoshi grew up was still kind of rural. He loved exploring nature and in particular, he liked catching bugs. The other kids took notice of his love of entomology and called him Dr. Bug. The thing is, Machida didn’t stay rural. Satoshi saw Tokyo’s urban sprawl pave over the space where he grew up and he felt a sense of loss. As an adult in the 1980s, he started a gaming magazine, then decided that making his own games would be more satisfying than writing about other people’s games. He and his friends started the video game company Game Freak with some modest success early on. In the early 1990s, Satoshi came up with an idea for a game inspired by his childhood. He thought about all the kids growing up in cities who wouldn’t get the chance to enjoy exploring nature and collecting bugs as he had. He thought it would be great to build a game around this idea with a kid collecting fantasy creatures he called pocket monsters. 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fun fact: almost as soon as people started walking on the moon, they started to put art on the moon. In 1969, Nasa landed the first astronauts on the moon. It was a relatively short stay given the distance they had traveled to get there and the years of work preparing for the voyage. Most people don’t know this, but just a few years later, the Apollo 15 crew left an astronaut behind to remain on the moon since 1971. It all started here on earth at a dinner party. Paul van Hoeydonck a Belgian artist known for his paintings and prints, was attending a dinner parity where he met David Scott, one of the astronauts slated to go to the moon on the Apollo 15 mission. As they were talking they started thinking about the monumental achievement of putting people in outer space and on the moon, all the teams of scientists working for years building off the work of previous generations and of course those who had made the ultimate sacrifice losing their lives in the pursuit of advancing space exploration. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walt Disney started making silly fun cartoon shorts, but he had a vision to elevate animation to the status of a feature film capturing the full scope of human emotions. Nobody believed he could do it. While there had been some feature length animations in other countries, they flopped. Disney pioneered new techniques to draw audiences into his fairy tale world. Learn how Disney's Folly became Disney's Triumph as he risked it all to create a work of art like nothing anyone had seen before. Check out my other podcast 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: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices