Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

In 1908, Fantasmagorie premiered as the first hand drawn cartoon paving the way for artists like Disney and what we think of as modern animation.See Fantasmagorie hereWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. 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.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who ARTed is the art history show dedicated to appreciating art in all of its forms from all sorts of artists. This week's mini-episode is about Pokemon. 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.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faith Ringgold is an accomplished painter, quilter, author and illustrator. Tar Beach is perhaps her best-known quilt and book.My guest for this episode is a quilter and fellow podcaster Myrtle. She hosts a new podcast A Series of Dysfunctional Events set to launch on October 1. You can find her on her website. Dysfunctionalevents.com Faith Ringgold began writing stories on the quilts as a way of getting her stories out there. She was not able to get her stories published, but when she put them on the quilt and hung it in a gallery, people could see it. Then later those quilts would be photographed and included in published articles or books further widening the audience to read her stories. Eventually, people did take notice and an audience grew for her stories. She has written and illustrated 17 children’s books. Tar Beach is her most famous work. The book was published in 1991 based on the story quilt of the same name which she created in 1990. Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe diptych is a post modern altarpiece. A diptych is a two-paneled piece. Traditionally, diptychs would be associated with religious artworks. Specifically Christian works. They often conveyed stories of the lives of saints or they were portraits of significant religious figures. A diptych would be a portable altarpiece, hinged so that the artwork could be closed off and protected. Andy Warhol, much like Marilyn Monroe and this portrait, was filled with seeming contradictions. There was a bright public persona, but simultaneously, the artist could be closed off and guarded. Warhol was known to revel in fame and he was a fixture of the New York club scene in places like studio 54, while simultaneously he remained a devout Catholic attending mass regularly and living with his mother. He took care of her and lived with her for most of his life. In this portrait, we see Marilyn Monroe presented in the format typically associated with religious artworks. This work was created just a few weeks after Monroe’s untimely death. She is an icon of pop culture. A face that graced the pages of every magazine and tabloid. She was a young girl, Norma Jean who had been plucked from obscurity and celebrated around the world for her beauty, but outside of public view, she struggled with her mental health, failed relationships and substance abuse. She was a martyr of the common culture’s celebrity worship. In Warhol’s diptych, we see 50 repetitions of her famous face. On one panel, there is shockingly bold underpainting creating a cartoonish appearance. On the other we see 25 black and white copies of the same shadows and contours but without the garish color. There are varying degrees of intensity. Some over-saturated with black and others fading to the ghost of an image. And yet, with all of these, we never see the real Marilyn. We see only copies of a publicity still. The image of a star at the height of her fame and beauty. Frozen in time and sent out for others to see and appreciate. The image prime for reproduction and distortion. For the artist and audience to project and see as they wish.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ai Weiwei is a contemporary artist who became well known to most people after he was held by the Chinese government for what many believe to have been political retribution. He has been such a thorn in their side, that his name is a banned search term on some social media. He was a highly rated blackjack player comped in all the casinos of Atlantic City and in addition to monumental works such as designing the stadium for the Olympic games, he put out heavy metal music. Learn more about the life and art of Ai Weiwei.My guest this week was Nathan from Post Modern Art PodcastWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The School of Athens was a Renaissance masterpiece depicting numerous ancient Greek philosophers and a little selfie by Raphael. If you want to learn more about the Renaissance, check out my other podcast, Art Smart.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 humanitySee Graham's piece, Steps in the Streets on YoutubeMy guest for this episode was Sean Roschman, director for Niko8.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.Connect with me:Website | Twitter | Instagram | TiktokSupport the show:Merch from TeePublic | Make a DonationAs 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices