Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

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 - SurrealismArts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Vote in the Current Round Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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’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: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

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 MeegerenJan van Eyck | The Arnolfini PortraitArts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

The transformation mask is a carved and painted sculpture, a status symbol, a costume element and a simple machine all at once. Pulling the strings on the mask allows the wearer to move parts that effectively animate the mask and bring it to life in front of the gathered crowd. Kwakwaka’wakw artists created a number of different masks representing different figures. Arts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

Today's mini-episode is about Auguste Rodin and his sculpture of The Burghers of Calais. The story behind the piece is an inspiring tale that defines courage. During the Hundred Years' War, the English had the city of Calais surrounded. As the days went on and the French army was unable to break the siege, the townspeople were forced to begin negotiating terms of surrender. They were told the town would be spared if 6 burghers (a burgher was a title, so these were the town leaders) would sacrifice themselves. Six men stepped up. While they were ultimately spared, one can imagine the mix of feelings as some might feel proud to do something noble and heroic and yet terrified at the grim reality. Traditional depictions of these men showed them as larger-than-life heroic figures, but Rodin gives us the stark reality. I think the brilliance of Rodin's work is that it recognizes that true courage means facing reality, and experiencing fear but still finding the strength to do what is right. Arts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

On the peninsula at Rozel Point on Utah’s Great Salt Lake, Smithson created his most famous monumental sculpture using over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth from the site. The spiral forms a path out onto the lake. It is intended to be not only witnessed but also experienced. Walking the spiral would be an almost meditative act similar to circumambulating or walking around a Hindu temple.Other content mentioned in this episode:The Nazca LinesArts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

Vincent van Gogh saw little commercial success during his lifetime, but he loved art and he worked to forge relationships with other artists he could learn from. The Starry Night came about late in his short career after Vincent van Gogh was hospitalized. He painted the view from his window, but rather than painting things exactly as he saw them, he painted a sort of composite landscape of views from different nights and even different locations. He moved the cypress tree to the foreground and added a little town nestled in the mountains despite the town not being visible from his window. This marked a major shift in painting away from observation of the external world to artists creating work as a show of their internal thoughts and feelings.Related episodes:Vincent van Gogh (part 1) | The Potatoe EatersVincent van Gogh (part 2) | Starry NightVincent van Gogh | SunflowersLoving Vincent - a Film Made of PaintingsDid Vincent van Gogh Really Only Sell One Painting?Art Smart: Impressionism & Post ImpressionismArts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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-Antoine Houdon was one of the greatest neoclassical sculptors in the late 18th century. Shortly after the American Revolution, the governor of Virginia asked Thomas Jefferson to find a sculptor to make a marble statue of George Washington for the state capital building. Jefferson was a self-taught architect and a big believer in the neoclassical movement's use of symbolism in art to convey a message that would leave the viewer wiser. He naturally turned to Houdon who traveled from France to Virginia to take Washington's measurements and even made a life mask (a plaster cast of the subject's face). Houdon created what many consider to be the most accurate representation we have today of George Washington. This is one of the 64 artworks up for listeners to vote on in this year's Arts Madness Tournament. Check the links below to see the brackets, learn about the artists and fill out the prediction form before voting starts next week. Arts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

Piet Mondrian is best known for painting primary colored squares and rectangles. For this episode, fellow art teacher, Jeff Arndt and I talked about the big ideas that led Mondrian to make such simple work. He pushed the ideas of modern abstract art further than anyone else. Mondrian limited himself to basic elements of simple lines, shapes, and colors to focus on the principles of design like balance and proportion.A common misconception about Mondrian is that his personal life was as bland as his art. Mondrian was actually quite charming. He took pains to be elegantly dressed at all times, he was kind and an avid dancer. He was said to be great at the foxtrot and the Charleston in particular. The ladies loved him, and he had multiple relationships including an engagement he called off in 1911, but he never married. I think my favorite odd bit though is according to a biographer, among the women of Amsterdam, Mondrian “developed a reputation for interesting, prolonged kisses, sometimes lasting for more than half an hour.” but back on point, he loved dancing and he loved music. While he was in Paris, he was particularly fond of the black American musicians that passed through including greats like Louis Armstrong. Mondrian talked about how the pianist accompanying Armstrong “allowed the bass line played with his left hand to fall out of sync, contrasting with the rhythmically varied ‘melody’ played by his right hand” Mondrian was all about the rhythm.Arts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts  Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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

Rachel Ruysch was an incredibly skilled Dutch painter in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She was renowned for her still lives. The objects in this work were carefully selected and the image is loaded with symbolism. Her painting, Fruit and Insects is one of the works on the list for the AP Art History curriculum. Those prepping for the test may want to check out my Spotify playlist: AP Art History Cram Session to learn about a number of artists and works that may appear on the test.Arts Madness 2024 links: The Brackets Spotify Playlist Prediction Form Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science LabWho 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